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CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 




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Autobiography of 

Charles Clinton Nourse 

Prepared for use of Members of the Family 




CONTAINING THE INCIDENTS OF 

MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS' PRACTICE AT THE BAR 

IN THE STATE OF IOWA 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 
MCMXI 



Copyright 1911 

BY CHARLES CLINTON NOUBSK 



N^2 



THE TORCH PRESS 
CEOAR RAPIDS. IOWA 



ll-miij 



©ci.a:;:i)o480 



CONTENTS 



I Ancestry and Eaely Life 

II Eaely Experiences in Iowa . 

III Removed to Des Moines 

IV Resumes the Practice of Law 

V Some Important Law Suits . 

VI Visits Virginia Relatives 

VII Pleasure Trip to Colorado 

VIII Centennial Address 

IX Temperance and Prohibition 

X Regulation op Freight and Passenger 

Tariffs 

XI Des Moines River Land Titles 
Xn A. 0. U. W. Controversy 

XIII Important Events in Career 

XIV The Brown Impeachment Case 

XV More Law Cases .... 

XVI Birth of a Son and Personal Incidents 

XVII Breeder of Short Horn Cattle 

XVIII B. F. Allen Bankruptcy 

XIX About Prohibition 

XX Personal Incidents. 



7 
18 
38 
56 
79 
95 
99 
104 
109 

142 
152 
163 
165 
171 
185 
193 
203 
208 
215 
226 



CHAPTER I 
Ancestry and Eaely Life 

Des Moines, Iowa, May, 1908 
To Masteb Joseph Chamberlain, 
Dear Joe : 

I promised your father that I would write you a long letter 
containing in detail something of a biography of myself. He 
assures me it is not intended for publication, but only for your 
perusal and for such friends of the family as may now or here- 
after deem it interesting to know something of those of the 
family who have preceded them. 

In Washington county, in the state of Maryland, near the 
little stream of Antietam creek, where was fought one of the 
memorable battles of our Civil War, there is located a quaint, 
old fashioned village called Sharpsburg. The inhabitants of 
the village and neighborhood were in a large part Germans or 
of German descent. 

On one corner of the public square there still remains, in 
fairly good repair, an old fashioned stone dwelling house. In 
this house on the first day of April, A. D. 1829, I was bom, as 
were also my two older brothers, Joseph Gabriel and John 
Daniel, born respectively June 25, 1826, and November 30, 
1827. This stone house at one time belonged to my grand- 
father, Gabriel Nourse, who was the son of James Nourse. 
The ancestors of the latter are given in a book now in the 
possession of your mother, entitled James Nourse and his 
Descendants. 

In the basement or first story of this stone building my 
father taught school about the time of the birth of his three 
boys, given above. At that early day the people of the village 



8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

and surrounding country were not supposed to be very highly 
educated. If children were taught to read and write indif- 
ferently and something of arithmetic, at least as far as the 
single rule of three, their education was supposed to be suf- 
ficient for the practical purposes of life. My father has re- 
lated to me that when he first commenced teaching in the vil- 
lage, in the presence of such a company as usually assembles 
around a country store, a wise man of the village explained to 
his admiring hearers that the cause of the changes of the moon 
resulted from the fact that the earth came between the sun and 
the moon and hence obstructed the light in such a way as to 
produce the new moon and the various changes until the full 
moon. My father rashly attempted to suggest that the wise 
man was mistaken, for the obvious reason that the moon in its 
first quarter could be seen in the heavens at the same time as 
the sun could be observed, and it was impossible that the moon 
could be partially darkened by the shadow of the earth. The 
wise man was rather mortified by this exposure of his ignor- 
ance, but did not acknowledge his error, but angrily reproved a 
young man for presuming to differ with him. 

In this stone building also my grandfather, Gabriel, died 
in April, 1839, and was buried in the village churchyard. 
This stone house is still standing at the date of this writing, 
and the basement room where my father taught school is oc- 
cupied as a store-room for vending relics and curiosities gath- 
ered from the battle-fields of the neighborhood. 

Three miles from the village of Sharpsburg, on the Vir- 
ginia side of the Potomac river, there is another quaint, old 
fashioned village called Shepherdstown. Here my mother, 
Susan Cameron, was born October 25, 1803, and was married 
to my father, Charles Nourse, June 10, 1825. Here in this 
village my mother died October 10, 1835. There is still stand- 
ing in this town the old Methodist church, surrounded by a 
village churchyard, where will be found modest tombstones 
marking the graves of my mother, and of many of her broth- 
ers and sisters, and also her mother, Susan Cameron, who 



ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE ^ 

died at Shepherdstown, Virginia, July 20, 1855. My mother's 
father's name was Daniel Cameron, born in Scotland, October, 
1753. His wife was also of Scotch descent. Her family name 
was Clinton, which name was bestowed upon me, and in honor 
of my grandmother and to please her I have always been 
known in the family by the name of Clinton, my first name 
being Charles, so named after my father. My father, Charles 
Nourse, was bom at Frankfort, Kentucky, April 15, 1801. 

Several years before my mother's death my father had re- 
moved from Sharpsburg to Frederick City, Maryland, where 
he taught school for several years, and while living there, to- 
wit, August 9, 1833, your mother's mother was bom. 

My recollections of my mother are not very distinct, as I 
was only six years old at the time of her death. Only one in- 
cident of my early childhood I call to mind very clearly. I had 
been induced by my older brothers and some neighbor boys, 
whilst playing in the market square at Frederick City, to at- 
tempt to imitate them in the use of chewing tobacco, which 
resulted in making me very sick. Whilst lying upon the 
trundle bed in the room upstairs of the house were we resided, 
I vomited very freely, and as I lay back upon my pillow, pale 
and weak from the effort, I remember a kind face of one stoop- 
ing over me and sympathizing deeply, not knowing the cause 
of my illness, and I remember how guilty I felt at being the 
object of so much undeserved sympathy. 

The last two years of our residence in Maryland we lived 
at a little village at the foot of the Blue Eidge mountains 
called Burkettsville, and during part of these two years my 
grandmother Cameron kept house for us and had charge of 
her four grandchildren. I remember her very distinctly, the 
most affectionate and patient woman it was ever my fortune 
to know. 

In February, 1841, my father, with his four children then 
living, took the old fashioned stage-coach at Boonesboro, 
Maryland, crossing the Allegheny mountains, coming on to 
Wheeling, crossing the Ohio river, and thence via Zanesville 



10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

and Somerset, Ohio, to the little village of East Rushville in 
Fairfield county, Ohio. After teaching school in East Rush- 
ville during the summer of that year, my father with myself 
and sister Susan removed to Lancaster, the county seat of 
Fairfield county, Ohio, leaving my two older brothers as heavy 
clerks in country stores — my brother Joseph with a man 
named Clayton and my brother John with a man named Paden, 
in two separate villages in the county of Fairfield. My father 
taught school in Lancaster, Ohio, for four years, I think most 
of the time for a compensation of $300 a year. As this sum 
was hardly sufficient to support him and his two children at a 
respectable boarding house, it became necessary for me to re- 
lieve the situation and to start out in the world for myself. 
My first attempt was in a country store at East Rushville with 
a man by the name of Coulson. After four months heavy 
clerking with this man, he failed in business and sold out his 
stock of remnants, and I returned to Lancaster to my father. 
After a few months I again attempted to do business in sup- 
port of myself, and I hired out to another village store-keeper, 
without any fixed compensation further than that I was to have 
my board and clothes for my services. My duties consisted of 
weighing out groceries, taking in eggs, butter, and feathers, 
and packing and preparing for shipment the butter and eggs, 
for which there was not sufficient local market. I also sold 
goods through business hours, made fires both in the store and 
for the family, sawed wood, milked the cow, and in the fall 
and winter fed, curried, and cared for a half dozen horses that 
were shipj^ed in the spring for the eastern market. At the 
end of sixteen months of this kind of service my employer ad- 
vised me and also my father that I would never make a mer- 
chant. I had positively refused to conform to his instructions 
in doing business in the manner in which he thought was most 
for his interest. He was engaged also at that time in buying 
leaf tobacco that was raised in the Hocking hills, for which he 
paid about one-third cash, one-third on short time, and one- 
third in goods out of the store. He had three prices or more 



ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE 11 

for nearly everj^thing he had to sell, depending, of course, on 
the character of his customer and the kind of pay he was to re- 
ceive. For instance : his cash customers, of whom there were 
very few, received four pounds of coffee for a dollar. His 
long credit customers, of whom there were many, received 
three pounds of coffee for a dollar, whilst Ms trade customers, 
especially those who took goods out of the store for tobacco, 
received two and a half pounds of coffee for a dollar. It was 
not easy for a young boy, or as j^oung a boy as I was at that 
time, always to understand the exact standing of the custom- 
ers, and it was necessary to watch carefully the old man who 
was proprietor of the store, who indicated by signs upon his 
fingers, which I too frequently misunderstood, just exactly how 
much coffee for a dollar a customer was entitled to. One 
remarkable incident of the manner in which my employer did 
business I remember very distinctly. During the day our 
little store was crowded with customers who had sold tobacco 
to our employer and had to take their pay in part out of the 
store. A young man by the name of Johnnie, who was a year 
or two older than myself and a favorite with the pro- 
prietor of the store, had during the day sold to a German 
woman a large red and yellow cotton handkerchief for the sum 
of thirty-seven and a half cents that was marked twelve and a 
half cents and had cost us eight and a third cents. The next 
day she returned with one of her neighbors who also had to 
take her pay out of the store for tobacco, and she wanted 
another of those red and yellow cotton handkerchiefs, which 
Johnnie sold her of course at the same price. In the evening 
Johnnie and mj^self had to go over to the old gentleman's resi- 
dence before we retired for the night and attend family pray- 
ers. During the evening the old gentleman recited Johnnie's 
exploits in selling those cotton handkerchiefs for three times 
the marked price, and then chuckled gleefully, praising John- 
nie for his success and how he would make a merchant, but 
that I would never learn; and then turning to his eldest 



12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

daughter he said: ''Hand me the bible, dear, we will have 
prayers. ' ' 

Whilst living with this old gentleman I became thoroughly 
disgusted with mercantile life, as I then saw it and witnessed 
it, and cast about in my own mind seriously to know what I 
should do for the future. I realized that I neglected my oppor- 
tunities whilst attending school under my father's instruc- 
tions, and I resolved, as far as I could under the circumstan- 
ces, to supply the omission. I got out my old Kirkham's gram- 
mar and my arithmetic and algebra, and spent many of my 
nights after the store closed in study. At the end of sixteen 
months of this life I returned again to my father, who was still 
at Lancaster. During the last year that I lived at Lancaster I 
assisted my father in his school, teaching the younger child- 
ren, and still to a limited extent pursuing my own studies. 

In the fall of 1844 my father determined to remove to Ken- 
tucky, leaving my sister Susan, your mother's mother, with 
Mrs. Catherine Sumner, a most excellent Presbyterian lady 
with whom my father had boarded for several years during 
his stay in Lancaster. My father first stopped at Millersburg, 
Bourbon county, and took up school, but only remained there 
a few months, having in the meantime heard of a vacancy in 
the position of principal of the public school in Lexington. 
Having secured this position at a salary then of only $600 a 
year, we removed to Lexington in the early part of 1845. 

I became one of the assistant teachers in this school at a 
salary of twenty dollars a month for the first year, but sub- 
sequently was promoted to the position of first assistant at a 
salary of thirty dollars per month, and continued to occupy 
that position until the fall of 1849, when I secured, by cour- 
tesy of the city council of the city of Lexington, the favor of 
entering the law school of Transylvania University, the city 
having a number of scholarships in that institution at its 
gratuitous disposal. During the four years that I taught 
school as an assistant in the city school, I still pursued my own 
private studies at night, reciting to my father in the morning 



ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE 13 

before school hours, until about the year 1848, when I had 
saved money enough from my meager salary to procure some 
text books of the law, and commenced reading law. In the 
meantime I had formed the acquaintance of a young lawyer, 
Abraham S. Drake, who became a very devoted friend of mine 
and superintended my reading, giving me such instructions as 
were necessary. My situation as a teacher in the public 
school in Lexington was very trying upon my health. I had 
an average of about fifty small children in a small room not 
more than twenty feet square, about six hours a day except 
Saturday, and had to occupy myself with my private studies 
when I ought to have had the privilege of and needed exer- 
cise in the open air. I had some satisfaction, however, in the 
success of my scholars, making it a specialty to teach them 
the art of reading well and reading aloud, an art which in the 
subsequent years I have found our public schools are sadly 
neglecting. I hope, dear Joe, you will succeed while you are 
going to school in learning to read, that being a neglected and 
almost a lost art in this day and generation. 

In August, 1846, my father returned to Lancaster, Ohio, 
and married Miss Hetty Herron, an adopted child of Mrs. 
Catherine Sumner's with whom my sister Susan had been liv- 
ing. Eeturning to Lexington, he continued teaching until 1850, 
when he removed to Millersburg, Kentucky. 

In the fall of 1849 I entered the senior class of the law 
department of Transylvania University, and in March, 1850, 
graduated and received my diploma from that school. My 
preceptors were two very able judges of the supreme court of 
Kentucky-, to-wit, Judge Robinson and Judge Marshall. I had 
first taken up the idea of becoming a lawyer during my resi- 
dence in Lancaster, Ohio, where I frequently spent my Satur- 
days in attendance upon the courts, listening with great in- 
terest to the speeches and discussions of the eminent men who 
constituted the bar at that place, among them Henry Stans- 
bury, afterwards Attorney General of the United States, 
Thomas Ewing, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury of the 



14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

United States during General Harrison's administration, 
Hocking H. Hunter, aftei-wards one of the judges of the su- 
preme court of Ohio. Whilst residing in Lexington, Kentucky, 
I pursued the same course, visiting the courts whenever oppor- 
tunity offered, hearing such men as Henry Clay and Thomas 
F. Marshall, and other distinguished lawyers of Kentucky, ar- 
guing their cases. 

In the meantime I had joined the Methodist Episcopal 
church on probation, and made the acquaintance of Miss Re- 
becca A. McMeekin. 

In the spring of 1850, after my graduation in the law de- 
partment of Transylvania University, I determined to visit 
Ohio, I had some idea of settling in that state, as my two 
brothers who remained in Ohio were then in business in Fair- 
field county, my oldest brother Joseph having commenced the 
mercantile business on his own account at New Salem, Ohio, 
and my brother John had commenced the practice of medicine 
in the village of New Baltimore in the same county. Before 
leaving Lexington, however, I felt it due to myself and to Miss 
McMeekin to explain to her my frequent visits to her house. I 
wrote her a letter telling her of my hopeless condition finan- 
cially and of the uncertain prospects of my success in my pro- 
fession, but protesting my affection for her and my good faith 
in the attentions that I had paid her, and asking her to decide 
our future for herself. She made no reply in writing, but in 
my next visit to her she simply expressed her faith in my ulti- 
mate success in my profession, and her entire willingness to 
risk the future, so that when I left Lexington for Ohio, which I 
did in April, 1850, 1 was simply engaged to be married. 

When I arrived at Lancaster I entered the office of John D. 
Martin, an eminent lawj^er of that place, in pursuance of a 
previous correspondence with him. He had been a particular 
friend of my father and an assistant to him in his school dur- 
ing my father's residence in Lancaster in 1842-3. He already 
had his nephew, Charles Martin, as an assistant in liis office 
and could not offer me any compensation or any work. After 



ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE 15 

two months I found it necessary to do something to replenish 
my exhausted finances. I first took a select school in Millers- 
port, a small town on the canal a few miles north of New Bal- 
timore. After teaching here for three months I took the win- 
ter school in New Baltimore at a salary of $30 a month. In 
the meantime, through the acquaintances of my brother Jo- 
seph, located at New Salem, and my brother John, located at 
New Baltimore, I became known throughout that part of the 
country as an embryo lawyer. Although not admitted regu- 
larly to the practice of law, in the courts of record, I had the 
right to practice before the justices of the peace of the county, 
and during that summer I tried some seventeen cases before 
these inferior courts. I still continued my studies of the law, 
using very frequently a book known there as Swan's Treatise, 
compiled for the benefit of the justices of the peace of the 
state by Judge Swan, of Ohio. This book also contained many 
references to the supreme court decisions of the state, and I 
was accustomed after school hours to walk to Lancaster and 
borrow these reports from my friend, Mr. Martin, frequently 
taking them home and using them upon the trial of my cases, 
which always occurred on Saturdays when I had no school. 

During my stay in Ohio, I read carefully and with much 
profit to myself, the daily reports of the proceedings of the 
state convention that was then forming a new constitution for 
that state. 

Many eminent lawyers were members of the convention, 
among them Mr. Stansbury, afterwards Attorney General of 
the United States, and Mr. Raney, afterwards Judge of the 
supreme court of the state of Ohio. Occasionally the learned 
men of the convention indulged their sense of humor, and 
among other incidents of the debates I recall the following: 

Among other members of the convention there was an un- 
educated man by the name of Sawyer. Mr. Stansbury, of the 
committee on the judiciary, reported a provision relating to 
the powers of certain courts, authorizing them to issue writ 
of habeas corpus, procedendo, quo warranto, and mandamus. 



16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Mr. Sawyer objected to these Latin terms being in the con- 
stitution on the ground that many of his constituents could 
not understand the meaning of such terms and he wanted the 
committee to put the words into English language, and also 
asked for an explanation of the meaning of these words. 

Mr. Stansbury very courteously explained that the diffi- 
culty was not in the use of the terms proposed, but it was be- 
cause his friend did not understand the nature of these writs. 
For the benefit of Mr. Sawyer he explained their meaning, but 
suggested that the use of any English terms or words would 
not make the character of the writs any better understood to 
those who are not familiar with the law. He said that the lit- 
eral meaning of the words "habeas corpus" was to have the 
body, and the writ was issued in case any one complained of 
being illegally imprisoned, or restrained of their personal lib- 
erty, and was intended for the purpose of having the body of 
the person in whose behalf the writ was issued brought before 
the court,, in order that the cause of his restraint or imprison- 
ment might be inquired into and its legality or illegality be 
determined; that to call the writ, a writ to have the body, 
would not make the term any more intelligent than to use the 
words "habeas corpus." 

That the word ' ' procedendo ' ' simply meant to proceed or 
go ahead, and was a name of a writ that was issued by the 
appellate court to an inferior tribunal, authorizing them to 
proceed in accordance with the opinion of the appellate court. 
Out of respect to the character of a man who had become 
famous in the west, of an early day, he would suggest to his 
friend Sawyer that this writ might be called a writ of ' ' David 
Crocket," as it was a favorite motto of that individual to "Be 
sure you are right and then go ahead. ' ' 

That the literal meaning of the words ' ' quo warranto ' ' was, 
"Why do you do it?" It was a writ issued by some superior 
court to an inferior court or tribunal, corporation or officer, 
to ascertain by what authority they exercised certain powers ; 
that the only term in English that would express the particular 



ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE 17 

character of the writ would be the words, "Why do you do it?" 
The writ of "mandamus" was a writ issued by the court 
commanding some inferior tribunal or officer to do and per- 
form certain duties which were required by law and which he 
had refused to perform. That the only words in the English 
language that would properly define the character of this writ 
would be, * ' Do it, damn you. ' ' 

It is not necessary to add that Mr. Sawyer gave the con- 
vention no further trouble in regard to the Latin names of 
these writs. 



CHAPTER II 

Early Experiences in Iowa 

In the spring of 1850 I had determined to seek a location 
for the practice of law in some western state. I first thought 
of migrating to Oregon, but gave up that idea for the reason 
that I feared if I traveled that far from my intended I might 
never have the means to go back to Kentucky to claim her. 
So, finally, I fixed upon the idea of removing to Iowa. Before 
deciding tliis important question, however, I wrote to my in- 
tended wife explaining to her the situation and again calling 
her attention to the uncertainties of the future. As she was 
two years older than myself I felt that it was hardly justice to 
her to insist upon our engagement if she felt that my future 
was too uncertain. I received in answer to this letter a kind 
assurance that her faith would not fail, and she cited that 
beautiful passage of scripture containing the answer of Ruth 
to Naomi : ' ' Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from 
following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and 
where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, 
and thy God my God : where thou diest, will I die, and there 
will I be buried : the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught 
but death part thee and me. ' ' 

The spring of 1851 1 returned to Kentucky for a short visit, 
my brother Joseph having loaned me fifty dollars in money 
and trusted me for a new suit of clothes. In the meantime 
my father had removed to Millersburg, Kentucky, and com- 
menced teaching there, a branch of what I think was known 
as Johnson's Military Academy, the principal school being at 
Blue Licks, Kentucky, in charge of James G. Blaine, after- 
wards a republican candidate for President of the United 
States. The lady he afterwards married also assisted my 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 19 

father, and received visits from Mr. Blaine on Saturdays and 
Sundays. It was whilst residing here that my sister Susan 
became acquainted with your grandfather, William Vimont, 
whom she married in January, 1853. 

It was the latter part of May, 1851, when I started west 
"to grow up with the country." We had then no railroads 
reaching the Mississippi river from the east, and I took the 
steamer at Louisville, Kentuck^^, for St. Louis, Missouri. At 
St. Louis I took the steamer for Iowa, not yet determined as to 
my landing. The waters of the river were at flood tide, and on 
our passage up we saw frame houses floating past us. I landed 
in Burlington the last day of May, and stopped at the Barrett 
House. I was not acquainted with a single person in the state 
of Iowa, had no relative, kindred, or friend to whom 
I could apply for advice or assistance. After a hearty din- 
ner I retired to my room, took a chair, put my feet up 
on my trunk, and held a consultation with myself. The ques- 
tion before the house was, what to do next. I had with 
me a general letter of recommendation from Professor 
Dodd, then president of Transylvania University, and a 
particular friend of my father, and another from Dr. T. 0. 
Edwards of Lancaster, Ohio, an ex-member of congress 
from that state, and also my letter as a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and my diploma signed by 
the law faculty and trustees of Transylvania University. 
After proper consideration I inquired of the landlord of the 
hotel where I could find a Methodist preacher, as I was satis- 
fied there must be such a person in the city. He directed me 
to the parsonage. I called upon the minister and made Ms ac- 
quaintance, the Reverend Mr. Dennis, who afterwards ob- 
tained some notoriety as a pastor in Kansas at the time of the 
Kansas troubles. He was a tall, white haired man of pleasant 
countenance and affable manners. I showed him my papers 
and told him my object in calling upon him was, through him, 
to make the acquaintance of some of the leading lawj^ers of the 
city from whom I could obtain infonnation and determine 



20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

what part of the state I would attempt to locate in. At that 
time the supreme court of the state of Iowa was in session in 
Burlington, consisting of Joseph Williams, Chief Justice, 
George Greene and John F. Kinney, justices. Mr. Dennis in- 
formed me that the judges were boarding at the same hotel, 
the Barrett House, and he made an appointment to go with 
me to their consultation room that afternoon and introduce me. 
We made the visit and I found the judges of the court very- 
cordial, and at their request I produced my diploma from the 
law school, told them who I was and where I was from, and 
that I desired some information in regard to the best possible 
location for a young attorney. They requested me to call at 
their courtroom the next morning at the opening of the court, 
and they would have me admitted to the practice of law in 
their court and throughout the state. The next morning I 
went to the court, and at the request of Judge Kinney, Mr. 
Dickson, of Keokuk, who was then in attendance at the court, 
made a motion for my admission to the bar, and suggested 
the appointment of a committee to examine me as to my quali- 
fications. The Chief Justice announced that an examination 
was unnecessary — the court had already examined the appli- 
cant and was entirely satisfied with his qualifications, and re- 
quested me to come forward and take the oath of office, which 
I did. I made the acquaintance of the clerk of the court, then 
"Old Timber," as we afterwards called him, his real name 
being James Woods. That evening Judge Kinney asked me 
to take a walk with him, and told me he had a brother-in-law, 
Augustus Hall, living at Keosauqua, Iowa, who was desirous of 
having a young lawyer associated with him in his office, and if 
I would go to Keosauqua he would give me a letter of intro- 
duction. I ascertained that the stage fare to Keosauqua 
would be six dollars. Upon taking an inventory of my pocket- 
book I found I only had about eight dollars left of the money 
my brother had loaned me. I had with me two trunks, one full 
of my law books, the other containing my clothing, etc. I in- 
terviewed the landlord and told him my situation financially, 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 21 

and proposed to him that I would leave my books in his cus- 
tody as I was still uncertain where I should settle, and leave my 
bill unpaid, if agreeable to him, until such time as I could send 
for my books. He readily agreed to the arrangement, but pro- 
posed that I should take my books and he would risk my send- 
ing the amount of my bill, which, however, I declined to do. 
The next morning Judge Kinney called me to one side, kindly 
suggesting that it was not unusual for young men to visit Iowa 
for the purpose of locating who were short of funds, and he 
would be glad to loan me a small amount if I would accept it. 
This kindness I also declined. I had no doubt that he had 
been advised by the landlord of my situation, and he was kind 
enough to attempt to help me. 

The next morning I took the stage-coach for Keosauqua, 
but owing to the condition of the roads, and particularly of 
Skunk river, I was taken to Keokuk where I had to stay all 
night. After paying my bill the next morning I found I 
had only twenty cents left. The next day the stage-coach took 
me to The Divide, as we called it, as far as Utica postoffice in 
Van Buren county, and there left me. The hack that should 
have taken me from there to Keosauqua had already gone be- 
fore our arrival. I could not stay here all night because I had 
no money to pay any bill, so I left my one trunk in charge of 
the postoffice to be sent to Keosauqua the next day on the hack, 
and I started to walk, then about ten miles, to reach Keo- 
sauqua. I had not walked far before I found that I had 
sprained my ankle slightly in jumping from the coach that 
morning. The walking became very painful, but I managed 
to reach Keosauqua about sundown that evening. The first 
building that looked like a hotel or public house was a frame 
building that stood southeast of the court house. The high 
waters of the Des Moines river had flooded the lower part 
of the to\ni, and I found this house was a boarding house, at 
that time full of guests. I inquired for the lady of the house 
and took my seat on a bench on the porch near the front door. 
Presently the lady of the house appeared, and looking at me 



22 A[JTOBIOGRAPIIY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

very inquiringly wanted to know who I was, where I was from, 
what was my business, and wliero 1 was going. I was a sorry 
looking subject, having waded through the mud for ten miles, 
and I presume 1 looked as I felt — very tired. I gave her my 
real name, told her 1 had no business, that I did not know 
where I was going, and that 1 had come from Keokuk that 
day. Slie told me her house was full and she did not believe 
she could accommodate me witli a night's lodging. I then 
asked her veiy politely for permission to remain upon the 
porch until I was sufficiently rested so I could go further 
down town and obtain lodging, but I asked her about the town, 
its population, and about the high waters. The lady turned 
out to be Mrs. Obed Stannard, the mother of Ed Stannard, 
aftei-wards Ijieutenant Governor of Missouri, and a very suc- 
cessful business man of St. Louis. She was a good talker, 
and after conversing with her about twenty minutes I got up 
to leave, thanking her very cordially for her kindness in per- 
mitting me to rest on the porch. She relented and told me 
she thought if I would stay that she could find accommoda- 
tions for me. 1 told her no, that I could not put a lady 
to any inconvenience when it was unnecessary and I must 
go, so I left and went down to the front street in the town 
to the Keosauqua House, kept then by "Father Shepherd," 
as we always called him, with whom I boarded until after I 
was married in 1853. 

Keosaucpia, at that time, as indeed it has been ever since, 
was a small town of about 1,500 inhabitants, the county seat of 
Van Buren county, located on the Des Moines river. It 
possessed one of the best bars of the state, and among its in- 
habitants were men who aftei-wards became distinguished 
in the history of the state. The men more actively engaged 
in practice were George G. Wright, for many years after- 
wards a judge of the supreme court of the state, Joseph C. 
Knapp, judge of tlie district court of that district and after- 
wards United States District Attorney, and Augustus Hall, 
afterwards a member of congress from that district and ap- 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 23 

pointed by Mr. Buchanan United States District Judge in 
Nebraska. The courts of this county were also visited by 
J. C. Hall, afterwards one of the judges of the supreme court. 
The pastor of the Methodist church at that time was Henry 
Clay Dean, who afterwards became chaplain of the United 
States Senate, and a notorious political orator. One of his 
converts was Delizon Smith, who had been an infidel lecturer 
and prominent politician in the state, and was afterwards 
elected for a short term to the United States Senate from the 
state of Oregon. The next year after I settled in Keosauqua, 
Henry Clay Caldwell, then a student in the law office of Judge 
Wright, was admitted to the bar, and after the Civil War 
was appointed United States District Judge and afte inwards 
United States Circuit Judge, being located during his official 
career as judge at Little Rock, Arkansas, now retired by 
reason of age and continued service, and residing at Los 
Angeles, California. 

The state of Iowa at that time in its politics was democratic, 
and the democratic party numbered a majority of about two 
hundred in Van Buren county. Delizon Smith, however, had 
failed to obtain a nomination by his party for the office of 
Governor, and had organized what was called ''The Young 
Democracy of Van Buren County," numbering about two 
hundred voters. This left the party badly demoralized in the 
county, and in August, 1852, 1 had so far succeeded in making 
the acquaintance of the people of the county that I was elected 
on an independent ticket to the office of county attorney, 
which then paid a salary of about three hundred dollars a 
year. 

After I had boarded with Father Shepherd for a few weeks 
I received from my brother Joseph a small remittance. I 
sent for my books that I had left at Burlington and took 
Father Shepherd, the landlord, into my confidence, told him 
my situation financially, and paid my ])ill up to that date. 
Father Shepherd at that time was himself a justice of the 
peace, and his hotel was the stopping place of most of the 



24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

people who acted as guardians and administrators, and who 
attended once a month sessions of the county court that then 
had jurisdiction in probate matters. I told Father Shepherd 
of my desire to make the acquaintance of these officials as 
they visited his hotel from time to time, and that his pay for 
my board depended largely upon my success in business, and 
I asked him to be my friend, and at least let people know 
why I was there and what my proposed business was. He 
became my fast friend and helped me to make very many 
valuable acquaintances. Father Shepherd was the father- 
in-law of Delizon Smith, and a leader of the faction known 
as the * ' Young Democrats ' ' of that county. 

Early in the spring of 1853 I received a letter from my 
then intended wife, suggesting that my success in business 
she thought gave sufficient promise for the future, and that it 
was not necessary for us to wait longer. Accordingly I got 
together one hundred dollars in money, made a trip around 
the river to Louisville, Kentucky, and thence via rail to Lex- 
ington for the purpose of realizing something of the deferred 
hope. We were married on the 15th of April of that year, 
my father in the meantime having removed from Millersburg 
to Winchester, Kentucky. I made him a visit in company 
with my bride and had the pleasure of meeting there my sis- 
ter Susan and her husband, William Vimont, your mother's 
father and mother. Before going to Kentucky and claiming 
my bride I purchased from the Reverend Daniel Lane a 
house and two lots in Keosauqua at the price of three hun- 
dred and fifty dollars, and borrowed fifty dollars from Thomas 
Devon to make the first payment. I had also attended sev- 
eral auction sales and bought some chairs and tables, a cook 
stove and a few dishes. My wife's mother had packed a 
feather bed, some pillows and bed clothes, and quilts of the 
old style in a store box, and we returned to Iowa the latter 
part of April, 1853. The expense of my trip and marriage 
left me only two dollars of the one hundred dollars I had 
when I started for my bride. We arrived in Keosauqua on 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 25 

Sunday in a slight April shower. On Mondey we proceeded 
to the house I had purchased, which was in need of repair. 
We whitewashed the walls and my wife washed the windows. 
The next day we made a bill of about forty dollars at the 
store for additional house-keeping facilities. I bought a sack 
of flour and a ham of meat, and on Tuesday evening we took 
tea at home. It was the first home I had had (in the proper 
sense of the term) since we left Maryland, and when we sat 
down at our own table to drink our cup of tea and eat the 
new made biscuit baked by my own wife, I could not repress 
the tears that came to my eyes, and I thanked God for the 
mercy that he had bestowed upon us. 

In the fall of 1853 I made a trip west through the southern 
tier of counties, attending the courts at Davis, Appanoose, 
Wayne, and Decatur counties. I made the trip on horseback 
with a pair of saddle-bags that contained my necessaiy bag- 
gage. 

From Bloomfield I was accompanied by several attorneys 
of that bar, and at Centerville two or three additional lawyers 
joined our party. The counties west of Centerville were 
very sparsely settled and the road consisted merely of two 
paths worn by the horses and wagon wheels on the prairie 
grass. In Wayne county we applied at one settler's house 
for accommodations for the night, but the housewife informed 
us that her husband was away from home, had gone to mill, 
and that she had nothing in the house to eat save a little 
bacon. She said if we would remain she would entertain us 
with such accommodations as the place afforded. The com 
was hardly yet ripe enough to feed our horses, but she told 
us if we would select the ripest and use some salt in feeding 
we were welcome to do so. We also, at her request, plucked 
some of the softer ears of the corn, and these she grated 
upon a large tin grater, and frying some of the bacon in her 
skillet she made cakes of the grated corn and fried them in 
the fat. She also gave us a cup of good coffee, and with the 



26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

appetites we had acquired in our day's travel we made a very 
hearty and palatable meal. 

When bedtime came she made some kind of a bed upon 
the floor. The next morning we had a breakfast of the same 
corn and bacon and coffee. The lady made a very reasonable 
charge for our entertainment, and she had no reason to doubt 
the sincerity of our compliments upon our fare, as the avidity 
with which we had eaten what she had supplied gave full evi- 
dence that we had appreciated our entertainment. The next 
morning we rode into Corydon, the county seat of Wayne 
county. The only hotel in the place was a small one and one- 
half story frame house, with a shed addition for kitchen and 
dining hall. 

Our bed room was the upstairs, and our beds were in two 
rows, with our heads under the eaves and our feet touching 
each other in the center of the room. We had no separate 
apartment or separate beds, our wearing apparel furnishing 
the pillows. 

The court was held in a frame school house on the public 
square. The boundaries of the public square were ascer- 
tained by a lot of wooden stakes or pegs. There was no 
general store in the place for the sale of goods. An enter- 
prising peddler with two large peddling wagons came through 
with us from Centerville and erected a large tent in the cen- 
ter of the square for the display and sale of his goods, and 
whenever the court was not in actual session his store was 
opened for business. 

Judge Townsend, of Monroe county, was the judge of the 
court. 

From Wayne county we went to Decatur, the peddler also 
keeping us company with liis itinerant dry goods establish- 
ment. During this trip I made the acquaintance of very many 
young men who afterwards became distinguished as lawyers, 
legislators, and judges. The only lawsuit in which I was con- 
sulted was a slander case tried in Wayne county. The suit was 
brought in behalf of a young woman for damages because of 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 27 

words spoken against her reputation by the defendant. Amos 
Harris, a law^^er from Centerville, was engaged as attorney 
for the defendant. When the case was about to be called for 
trial Harris expressed his wish to have my advice in regard 
to the course to be pursued, and at his request I retired with 
him to the shady side of the school house for consultation. 
He told me that his client was a man of some property and that 
the plaintiff had some witnesses who would testify clearly and 
positively to the slanderous words spoken by the defendant of 
and concerning the young lady. He said his client really had 
not injured the reputation of the young woman at all because 
nobody believed any thing that he said as he had a very bad 
reputation for veracity. He said they could make no defense 
whatever, as the girl's character was good, and he was afraid 
of a large verdict for damages against his client, and asked 
me if I could think of any way that he could help his client out 
of the difficulty. I asked him if he could prove that nobody 
believed what his client said on account of his bad character. 
He said yes, there were plenty of persons that would testify 
to that, but he could not see how that was any defense. I told 
him it was no defense against the slander, but it might be 
proved with advantage in mitigaton of damages, provided his 
client would be willing that he should undertake to do so. He 
called his client out and explained to him the situation as I had 
advised, and asked him if he was willing to save his money at 
the expense of his reputation. The fellow winced, but finally 
consented that Harris might make the proof. I suggested 
that as the plaintiff's witnesses were all friendly to the young 
lady Harris might on cross-examination prove by them that 
they did not at the time or ever believe the slander that the 
defendant had uttered against the plaintiff, and that they had 
never repeated it to anyone except accompanied by their state- 
ment of their belief that it was all false, and Harris introduced 
several other witnesses to prove the bad reputation of his client 
for truth and veracity. The plaintiff's attorneys objected 
and the court first hesitated to allow the witnesses to so testify, 



28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

but upon the suggestion that it was the best thing for the plain- 
tiff's reputation, and that as nearly the whole population of 
the county was there upon attendance of the court, it was bet- 
ter to clear up her reputation by this testimony than to give 
her money to heal her wounded feelings, the court finally took 
this view of the case and permitted the evidence to go to the 
jury in mitigation of damages. The jury found a verdict in 
favor of the plaintiff against the defendant for the sum of 
only twenty dollars. The young woman went home with her 
character thoroughly vindicated and her reputation restored, 
and the only one unhappy over the result of the trial ap- 
peared to be the attorney for the plaintiff, who was un- 
doubtedly expecting a handsome recovery as the only means 
of compensating him for his professional work. 

From Decatur county I returned home, having learned 
much of the country and its people, and having made many in- 
teresting acquaintances among the members of the bar. 

And now I must tell you something of my political career, 
which properly begins at about this date. I had been made 
chairman of the county committee of the fast dissolving or- 
ganization known as the whig party. In the fall of 1854 I was 
a candidate for re-election as county attorney. We had nomi- 
nated a county ticket of two candidates for the state senate 
and four representatives, what we then called the anti-Ne- 
braska whigs, James W. Grimes was the candidate for Gov- 
ernor of the state. The democratic party had passed what 
was called the ''Kansas-Nebraska Bill," containing a clause 
repealing the Missouri Compromise measure, adopted in 1820, 
that prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude north of 
thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude in the 
territories of the United States, acquired by the Louisiana 
Purchase. This had resulted in the partial disorganization of 
the democratic party throughout many of the northern states. 
I had left Kentucky because of my opposition to slavery, and 
especially to what I regarded as the baleful influence of that 
institution upon the white population. I had settled in Iowa 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 29 

because it was a free state and because I felt that the 
opportunities for success in life would be greater than in a 
slave state. I had observed whilst in Kentucky that fixed 
conditions of political, social, and business life made the suc- 
cess of the young man, depending only on his own energies 
and abilities, always doubtful and difficult. 

Upon my defeat as prosecuting attorney in 1854, at the sug- 
gestion of the members elected to the legislature from Van 
Buren county I went to Iowa City in their company at the be- 
ginning of the session, and through their influence I was elec- 
ted clerk of the house of representatives of the state of Iowa. 
I found this position of great advantage and help, not only 
pecuniarily, but I made the acquaintance of public men of all 
parties during the session. Afterwards in 1856-7 I was elec- 
ted secretary of the senate of the state. 

In 1854, at the dissolution of the old whig party there ex- 
isted a political organization in many of the states of the 
Union called ''The Know-Nothings. " It was a secret politi- 
cal organization, having for its principal doctrines opposition 
to the Roman Catholics and to the foreign-born citizens of the 
United States. I refused to affiliate with this "Know-Noth- 
ing" organization for the reason that I did not believe in 
secret political societies or organizations in this country, and 
I did not believe in making the religious faith or affiliations of 
any man a test for office, neither did I believe that anyone 
should be excluded from the confidence and respect of his fel- 
low men because of the place of his birth. As county chair- 
man of the expiring whig party I issued to the people of Van 
Buren county a circular stating my position and declining to 
call any convention to cooperate with the ''Know-Nothing" 
organization. I did this for the further reason that the oppo- 
sition to the extension of slavery into the territories was 
becoming every day more and more pronounced in the north- 
em states of the Union, and the nucleus of what was after- 
wards the republican party had already been formed in many 
of the northern states. 



30 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

It may be interesting to you to have the history of how 
Henry Clay Dean became a democrat, and how a little thing 
may change the destiny and fortune of a man in this life. In 
the fall of 1854 the Methodist annual conference for Iowa met 
at the city of Dubuque. It was the custom at that early day 
for the members of the conference to become guests of the 
citizens of the locality where the conference had its meetings. 
Dean was then a member of the conference, and had been re- 
ceiving and filling regular appointments as a pastor. At Du- 
buque resided Honorable George W. Jones, then a democratic 
United States Senator from Iowa. Jones maintained a good 
table and was a good liver, and his wife an excellent, hos- 
pitable lady. In assigning the members of the conference to 
the different citizens. Dean was assigned as the guest of Sen- 
ator Jones and his wife. After the conference had been in 
session a few days, the "Know-Nothings" having been se- 
cretly organized in the city of Dubuque became very active in 
obtaining the names of the Methodist ministers attending the 
conference, and in initiating them into their order. Among 
other names presented and favorably acted upon was that of 
Henry Clay Dean, my former pastor and friend. After he 
had been elected and the time appointed for his initiation a few 
nights hence, one of the over zealous ministers represented to 
Brother Dean that as he had now been elected a member of 
the "Know-Nothing" organization it was not proper for him 
to continue to be the guest of and accept of the hospitality of 
the wife of George W. Jones, who was a Roman Catholic. 
Dean was an enormous eater, and the suggestion that he 
should give up his nice boarding place greatly offended him, 
and he denounced the suggestion as bigotry and presumption 
inexcusable. He at once went to Senator Jones and told him 
of the proposition that had been made to him and the cause 
of it, and denounced the "Know-Nothing" organization in 
most uncompromising terms. The Senator was pleased with 
Brother Dean's zeal in the matter, and induced liim on the 
succeeding Sabbath to preach a sermon on "Know-Nothing- 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 31 

ism" and to denounce it from the pulpit. Dean was a man of 
more than ordinary ability, with a wonderful command of 
language. Upon the adjournment of the conference Senator 
Jones wrote to Judge Knapp at Keosauqua stating the situa- 
tion and suggesting that Dean be employed in the political 
canvass against the ' ' Know-Nothings " that fall, and be en- 
couraged in his oppositon to that order. Dean returned to 
Keosauqua, and I had a long conference with him upon this 
matter. I knew that he had been engaged several years be- 
fore that in collecting the most learned and effective argu- 
ments in favor of protective tariff as delivered in congress 
from time to time, especially from whig members from the 
state of Pennsylvania. I also knew that he had preached 
some of the bitterest sermons against human slavery that I 
had ever heard from the pulpit or from any source, and I 
urged upon him that he could not consistently cooperate with 
the democratic party because of his views in regard to the tariff 
and because of liis opposition to slavery. I pointed out to him 
that the organization of the republican party was then pro- 
ceeding in most of the states and that his feelings, sentiments, 
and views would be better expressed by the position of that 
organization; that the ''Know-Nothing" party was a mere 
temporary passion and would effervesce and disappear in a 
short time, and that his efforts in opposition to them would 
be wholly unnecessary and gratuitous. But he was too wroth 
and anxious for his revenge against those who suggested that 
he decline the hospitality and good dinners of Senator Jones. 
He accordingly entered the canvass, and that fall there being 
the election in Virginia in which Henry A. Wise was a demo- 
cratic candidate for Governor and was opposed by the ' ' Know- 
Nothings," Dean with letters of recommendation from Jones 
and Senator Dodge and other leading democrats of Iowa went 
to Virginia and entered the political canvass in favor of Wise 
and in oppositon to the ''Know-Nothings." Wise was elec- 
ted, and Dean then went to Washington City. With the in- 
fluence of Dodge and Jones and the Virginia delegation he 



32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

was elected chaplain of the United States senate, and there- 
after, and especially during the Civil War, he made himself 
notorious as a democratic orator. 

Without observing the exact chronology of events, it would 
be well here to recite certain facts and incidents that had a 
material influence upon my mind, and determined my action 
in regard to the question of human slavery. While residing 
in Kentucky and boarding in the family of my friend, Abra- 
ham S. Drake, I had frequent conversations with him in regard 
to the subject. He was at that time decidedly opposed to the 
institution, regarding it as morally wrong and detrimental in 
its effect upon the white as well as the slave populaton of the 
state. 

Slavery at that time existed in Kentucky in its most modi- 
fied and humane condition, but the system itself and the law 
gave to the slave owner a power over the slave that was too fre- 
quently abused. One instance I recall that made a powerful 
impression upon my mind. On a beautiful Sabbath morning in 
the early part of the summer I was taken sick, while in atten- 
dance upon religious services at the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and was compelled to leave the church and go home, 
soon after the singing of the opening hymn. On the way to 
my boarding house I passed near what was known as the 
** Watch-house" or headquarters of the police, and was shocked 
to hear the cries of a negro woman who was maid to some 
wealthy mistress, who had become offended at her that morn- 
ing, and had sent for the police and given orders that her serv- 
ant be taken to the police quarters and given a certain num- 
ber of lashes, administered in expiation of her offense. 

The contrast between the quiet worshipers at the church 
and their seeming devotion, and the horrible cries that filled 
the air from the unfortunate negro slave woman was a com- 
ment upon the injustice and brutality of the institution, that 
made an impression upon my mind that has never been erased. 

In 1853 when I went to Kentucky for the purpose of being 
married I was the guest of my friend Drake for several days. 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 33 

While sitting upon the veranda one evening one of his child- 
ren was playing upon the lawn in front of the house, with a 
little negro tot two or three years of age. He called my atten- 
tion to the colored child, stating that that was his '* carriage 
driver" and that he was a child of one of the negro women 
that his wife had inherited a few years before, and he re- 
marked that the child was worth then $600. I reminded him 
of our former conversation and discussion in regard to slavery 
and expressed my surprise that he would have any pleasure 
in calculating the money value of this child. He informed me 
that his views on the subject of slavery had undergone quite a 
change, and upon investigating the subject he was satisfied 
that the Bible fully justified the institution of slavery, and he 
thought it was right morally as well as legally to own and en- 
joy the possession of such property. I said but little in re- 
sponse to these arguments, but could not but reflect and be con- 
vinced that it was pecuniary investment that had its baleful in- 
fluence upon the conscience of my friend and perverted his 
moral sense, and this was only to me an additional reason for 
hating the institution. 

Wlien returning from Kentucky with my bride we stayed 
over a day at Louisville, as my wife desired to visit some 
old friends and former neighbors who had resided near them 
in Lexington. We accordingly made a call upon her friends, 
and while sitting in the parlor conversing about old times a 
colored woman about the age of my wife came into the room, 
and greeting us begged to inquire of my wife in regard to her 
husband, it appearing from her story the family had moved 
from Lexington to Louisville about two years before, and that 
the woman had been separated from her husband, who still re- 
sided in Lexington and was the property of another party. In 
the meantime the slave woman had given birth to a child, and 
amid her tears told how she longed to see her husband and 
have him see her young babe. The interview was cut short 
when the slave woman was remanded to the kitchen, and the 
cheerful recall of pleasant reminiscences became rather sad. 



34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

The family insisted upon my wife and myself remaining to 
dinner and pressed upon us with great earnestness their hos- 
pitality. My wife was disposed to accept of the invitation, but 
having only been married the week before, I was not prepared 
to accept of the hospitality of people who separated a husband 
and wife thus ruthlessly, and I retired with thanks, and we 
took our dinner at the hotel. 

After I settled in Keosauqua, Iowa, I became a subscriber 
to and a constant reader of the New York Tribune, and in due 
time also read with much interest that wonderful book written 
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, called Uncle Tom's Cabin. 

During the winter of 1857, whilst I was secretary of the 
state senate, I enjoyed the pleasure of hearing Wendell Phil- 
lips deliver his lecture upon the "Lost Arts." At the close 
of his lecture Hon. J. B. Grinnell, then a member of the state 
senate from Poweshiek county, rose in the audience and re- 
quested Mr. Phillips to give us his views upon the subject of 
slavery, and especially called his attention to the fact that Mr. 
Phillips had been represented by the public press as favoring 
a dissolution of the American Union. Mr. Phillips courteously 
complied with the request, and proceeded to say that when the 
constitution of the United States was formed it contained with- 
in its provisions, as he believed, the germ of human liberty. 
That the declaration of American independence had declared 
that all men were entitled to the inalienable rights of life, lib- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness. He said that he was in 
favor of the development of this germ to its fullest extent; 
that the constitution of the United States might be compared 
to a box in which was planted an acorn ; the acorn would grow 
in the very nature of things and become an oak, but whether 
or not the box in which the acorn was planted was sufficient to 
contain the development and growing germ, he could not say. 
He was not concerned in regard to the safety of the box, but he 
was anxious that the germ should develop and that the tree 
should grow. That whether or not the constitution of the 
United States could survive the development and growth of 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 35 

this germ of human liberty that had been planted therein, he 
could not say, and upon that question he did not feel any very 
great anxiety; all he had to say in regard to the matter was 
that he was in favor of the growth of the germ, and he believed 
that the acorn would grow and ought to grow. 

Wendell Phillips was one of the most eloquent and graceful 
public speakers it was ever my privilege to listen to. I had 
expected from his reputation as a reformer and abolitionist to 
hear a man with loud voice and vehement gesticulation, but in- 
stead he proved to be mild, quiet, self-possessed, delivering his 
utterances in the clearest, mildest, and most persuasive tones, 
commanding the respect of his audience and almost fascinating 
them with his words. 

During the same session I also had the pleasure of hearing 
at Davenport, Iowa, a lecture from Horace Greeley, the great 
editor of the New York Tribune. I was greatly disappointed 
in Mr. Greeley's lecture. As a writer I knew him to be the 
clearest and most incisive in his utterances. His manner on 
the platform and his speech were those of a drony, sing-song, 
intonating Episcopal minister, devoid of life and spirit. 

The general assembly of 1854-5 elected George G. Wright, 
then of Van Buren county, Norman W. Isbell, and Wm. G. 
Woodard, judges of the supreme court of the state to fill the 
vacancies caused by the expirations of the terms of Judges 
Williams, Kinney and Greene. At this session also occurred 
the first election of James Harlan as United States Senator. 
Mr. Harlan was not permitted to take his seat under this elec- 
tion, for the reason that at the adjourned joint session at which 
he was elected the senate as an organized body with their presi- 
dent, Maturin L. Fisher, had not participated in the election, 
but had previously adjourned the session of the state senate. 
Mr. Harlan was again elected in the session of 1856-7, and his 
right was recognized by the senate. 

In the summer of the year 1856 a republican convention was 
called for the state to be held at Iowa City, for the organiza- 
tion of that party, in sympathy with other state organizations 



36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

of like name and principles. As the sole surviving official of 
the old whig party of Van Buren county, I called a county 
convention to meet at Keosauqua for the purpose of appoint- 
ing delegates to the state convention to be held at Iowa City. 
I wrote a letter to my friend, H. C. Caldwell, asking him to 
write a letter to Judge Wright and urge upon him the pro- 
priety, as he could not be present at this county convention, of 
writing a letter endorsing and encouraging the movement. 
Judge Wright declined to write any such letter, and simply 
wrote to Mr. Caldwell that he hoped we were doing right in 
calling the county convention. 

I was present at the county convention and started the 
movement with such enthusiasm as we were able to awaken. 
Delegates were duly appointed, but the attendance at Iowa 
City required of them an overland trip of some seventy-five 
miles. 

I then owned what was called a ' ' democrat wagon, ' ' having 
two seats, and a small gva,y mare and mustang pony. With 
this team and wagon, when the time came, I furnished the 
transportation for the delegation, and Van Buren county was 
represented in the state convention by Abner H. McCrary, 
our state senator from Van Buren county. Dr. William Craig, 
George C. Duffield, and myself. I had the honor also to be 
appointed one of the secretaries of this state convention. 
This was the first republican state covention held in the state, 
and was the beginning of the political organization that has 
ever since, with the exception of a period of four years, con- 
trolled the legislation and policy of the state of Iowa. 

The first national republican convention met at Philadel- 
phia in the fall of 1856 and nominated General John C. Fre- 
mont as its candidate for President. I took an active part in 
the campaign in Iowa that ensued. At the request of the 
central committee of the state I spent several weeks in can- 
vassing Davis county. Many of the settlers in the southern 
tier of townships, both in Van Buren and Davis counties, in- 
stead of finding themselves in a slave state, in the state of 



EARLY EXPERIENCE IN IOWA 37 

Missouri, were really citizens of the free state of Iowa. It 
was much easier to ascertain the true southern boundary 
of our state than it was to remove the prejudices of the 
benighted citizens who had by mistake settled in Iowa, so 
when I went into Davis county in 1856 to make republican 
speeches opposed to the existence and extension of slavery 
in our free territory, I met with small encouragement. We 
were courteously called "black republicans," and frequently 
designated as "damn black repubhcans." At one point 
where I had an appointment to make a political speech 
I found an audience assembled that had armed themselves 
with rotten eggs, with the intention of driving me out of 
their locality. It so happened that the year before most 
of these men had been indicted for libel in accusing their 
school-master of burning down a school house in the township, 
notifying him publicly to leave the county or suffer mob 
violence. A civil suit was also instituted against them for 
damages. I had been employed by them and succeeded in 
getting them off with the reasonable sum of eight hundred 
dollars, for which they were truly grateful, and when they 
found that I was to be the "black republican" orator adver- 
tised for the occasion, they generously assured me that if it 
had been anybody else they would not have permitted him to 
speak, but as I had stood by them in their trouble I might go 
on and say just what I pleased. They were a warm-hearted, 
hot-headed, impulsive set of men. Just how many converts I 
made during the two weeks that I was engaged in speaking in 
Davis county I cannot say. We had no republican organiza- 
tion in the county, and the leading men who took any active 
part in politics in opposition to the democratic party were 
running Bell and Everett as their candidates. Davis county, 
at the ensuing election, gave Fremont electors only two hun- 
dred and fifty votes, and the vote in the state of Iowa stood 
as follows: Fremont, 43,954; Buchanan, 36,170; Fillmore, 
9,180. 



CHAPTER III 

Removed to Des Moines 

The practice of law in Van Buren county did not prove 
very remunerative. The district court met only twice a year. 
The business of the tenn sometimes occupied only two or 
three days, seldom beyond one week, and never beyond two 
weeks. 

During the time I had continued to reside in Van Buren 
county one of the most important cases in which I was re- 
tained was a contest over the legality of a will in which the 
deceased had made a bequest of a small tract of land to the 
Methodist Episcopal church, organized out on what was called 
' ' Utica Prairie. ' ' The will provided that the land should be 
sold by the trustees of the church and a fund created out of 
which should be paid so much a year to the missionary cause 
and so much to tlie support of the minister. The remainder 
should be expended by the trustees in erecting a house of 
worship. The trustees of the church had not been incorpor- 
ated, and the heirs sought to set aside the will on the ground 
that there was no legal capacity in the trustees to receive the 
bequest, and on the further ground of the uncertainty of the 
beneficiaries under the will. I was retained in the case in be- 
half of the tiTistees, and had them immediately adopt articles 
of incorporation and file the same as provided by the statutes 
of the state. I filed an answer in the case, setting forth with 
particularity the character of the Methodist Episcopal 
church's organization, with proper averments as to the cer- 
tainty of the continued existence of the beneficiaries under the 
will. The case was tried upon demurrer to this answer, and 
upon appeal to the supreme court of Iowa the will was sus- 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 39 

tained. The opinion of the court is fully reported in the case 
of Johnson et al. vs Mayne et al., Trustees, 4th Iowa, 180. 

I charged and received from the trustees the sum of $200 
for my services in the case, being the largest amount that I 
received in my practice from any one case during the seven 
years I remained in Keosauqua. 

The railroad up the Des Moines valley from Keokuk had 
been located some three or four miles north of the town of 
Keosauqua, and I saw no immediate prospect of any improve- 
ment or growth in the town. Added to these discouragements, 
my wife and myself in the fall of 1857 were both taken down 
with the fever and the ague. On advice of our physician we 
made a visit to Kentucky" and also to Ohio to visit our rela- 
tives, hoping by some means to escape or shake off the dreaded 
disease, but the more we shook the stronger the ague kept its 
hold. I had during that year (1857) been employed by Edwin 
Manning, the commissioner of the Des Moines River Improve- 
ment, to represent the interest of the state in certain suits 
commenced against him by the Des Moines Navigation & Rail- 
road Company, for the purpose of compelling him to certify 
to the company certain lands belonging to the state under the 
grant of congress, made for the purpose of aiding in the im- 
provement of the navigation of the Des Moines river, the com- 
pany claiming that they were entitled to certain of these lands 
at the rate of $1.25 per acre for moneys expended in the build- 
ing of locks and dams upon the river, which expenditure had 
been certified by the state engineer. The general assembly 
of the state of Iowa was to meet for the first time in the city 
of Des Moines on the first day of January, 1858, and I went to 
Des Moines in company with Mr. Manning at that time for the 
two-fold purpose of calling the roll of senators upon the organ- 
ization of the senate, that being mj duty as the secretary of 
the past session, and also to look after the interest of the 
state in the settlement that was then to be made between the 
state and the Des Moines Navigation Company, the supreme 
court having decided the suit, to which I have referred, in our 



40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

favor. I found Des Moines to be a thriving young city of 
something less than five thousand inhabitants, but with great 
expectation for the future as the permanent capital of the 
state of Iowa. I was introduced after a few days ' stay in the 
city to Judge W. W. Williamson, an old time lawyer with a 
good collecting business, who offered me a full partnership in 
his business, and I finally determined, after transacting the 
business I had in Des Moines, to return to Keosauqua and dis- 
pose of my affairs there and remove to this city, which I fin- 
ally did, and on the 6th day of March, 1858, with my wife and 
household goods and the ague, we came to Des Moines. 

About a year or more before we left Keosauqua I had 
traded off the house I had first purchased in the village for a 
very beautiful home that had been built by L. J. Eose. It had 
about a full block of ground well planted with young fruit 
trees and vines and shrubbery and rose bushes. The house 
was well located on the hill in the northwest part of the vil- 
lage, and my wife as well as myself had become fondly at- 
tached to the place. During our five years of residence we 
had many friends in the town, and we found it hard to leave 
them. My wife shed many tears at the thought of leaving 
the place, but the largest amount that my practice had yielded 
in any one year whilst in Keosauqua was $800, and I was satis- 
fied that our best interests would be promoted by our new lo- 
cation. The location of the permanent capital of the state at 
Des Moines, and the fact that our supreme and United States 
courts would be located there, and that it would necessarily 
become a railroad center and build up and become one of the 
chief cities of the state, had attracted many other young men 
of the profession. Within twelve months before the time I 
settled in Des Moines probably a dozen well educated, enter- 
prising young lawyers had preceded me. The result was a 
fierce competition and struggle for business, every young man 
realizing that it was a question of the survival of the fittest, 
and that his success depended upon himself. Before arriv- 
ing in the city I had secured a small house of two rooms and a 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 41 

shed kitchen on Sixth street, at a rental of twenty dollars per 
month. We moved our goods into this house on Saturday, 
and on Sunday morning after a light breakfast both my wife 
and myself went to bed with the ague. The chill was suc- 
ceeded, of course, by the usual high fever, and in the middle 
of the afternoon we were delighted by a call from an old ac- 
quaintance, a girl that had been raised at Keosauqua and who 
had married Mr. R. L. Tidrick, of Des Moines. She made us 
a cup of tea, and we came out of the fever encouraged and con- 
tented. 

The first two years of my practice in Des Moines were not 
remunerative. In addition to our earnings we spent $1500 in 
our living, having saved that amount from the proceeds of the 
property that we disposed of at Keosauqua. 

In the fall of 1859 I took an active part in the political 
campaign that resulted in the election of Samuel J. Kirkwood 
for Governor and the defeat of Augustus Ceasar Dodge, for- 
mer democratic Senator from Iowa. As I had become inter- 
ested in and contemplated taking an active part in the politics 
of the state and nation, I occupied my leisure time in more 
serious and thoughtful consideration of the grave questions 
that were soon to confront the nation. I read with great in- 
terest and studied with great care the debates between Stephen 
A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln that had taken place in the 
state of Illinois, and the struggle between those parties for a 
seat in the United States senate. I also read with some care 
and great interest the great questions that had divided those 
who had framed the constitution of the United States. I be- 
came thoroughly grounded in the theory that our fathers in 
forming our national constitution had established a govern- 
ment with all the essential attributes of sovereignty. Whilst 
there is a limitation upon the subjects over which the govern- 
ment should exercise jurisdiction, yet within the sphere over 
which it might exercise any power it was absolutely sovereign 
and supreme ; that the constitution was not a compact or treaty 
between sovereign states, but that it was a government, deriv- 



42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

ing its powers directly from the people, with power to make 
its own laws and through its courts to interpret and administer 
its own laws, and through its executive and his appointees had 
the power to execute its own laws ; that the relation between 
the national government and the individual was direct, with 
power over his person and his property so far as it was neces- 
sary to assert and maintain its jurisdiction; and that it col- 
lected and disbursed its own revenues, enlisted and maintained 
its own armies, built and maintained its own navies, and that 
its constitution and laws, by the very terms of its organization, 
constituted the supreme law of the land. That the assumption 
that it was a mere treaty between the sovereign states, from 
which any state might at any time secede at its pleasure, was 
an erroneous assumption, and inimical to our national exist- 
ence and prosperity. I found upon examination of the de- 
cisions of the supreme court of the United States that these 
views of our national government and its powers had been ful- 
ly sustained by the supreme court of the United States by the 
most eminent jurists of the land. Particularly I studied with 
great care the decisions of the supreme court of the United 
States, and the opinions of the Chief Justice Marshall of that 
court, delivered in the early history of our government. 

The same fall of 1859 I made a trip through Warren, Mad- 
ison, Dallas, Guthrie, and Union counties, at the request of the 
republican state central committee. They furnished me with a 
covered buggy and pair of horses, without any expense to my- 
self, and loaded me down with a lot of political campaign docu- 
ments which I undertook to distribute, making political 
speeches also at the county seats in each of the above named 
counties. 

In crossing from Winterset over to Eedfield one afternoon 
I found the road becoming very obscure, and a smoke arising 
from some burning prairie northwest of me so darkened the 
way that I became apprehensive of losing my road. There 
was no settlement in sight and no one from whom I could in- 
quire the way. While I was seriously pondering upon the dif- 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 43 

ficulty, a half dozen or more fine short horn cows crossed my 
path ahead of my team and I thought the safest way out of the 
difficulty would be to follow the cows, as they probably knew 
better than I where we were going. I had not followed these 
cows more than a few hundred yards before the owner of them 
appeared. He was a young Quaker about thirty years of age, 
named Wilson. I told him who I was and what my business 
was and he cordially invited me to go home with him. He lived 
in a small board shanty, one large room and an attic, situated 
under the hill. iVfter sheltering his cows in a shed-bam cov- 
ered with hay he took me to his house. I thought the chances 
for accommodations rather meager, but I noticed that he had a 
small yard fenced in front of his house, with a path of 
flagstones from the gate to the door, and on either side was 
planted quite a show of flowers and rose bushes. As we 
neared the house a very handsome young Quaker woman, his 
wife, with a little girl about three years of age, appeared at 
the door. Inside it was neat and tidy. The little Quaker wife 
prepared us a supper of snow-white biscuits and a plate of 
beautiful honey. She told me that they had attended the 
county fair that day and had taken a premium upon their 
honey. I spent a pleasant evening discussing politics with 
Mr. Wilson and supplying him with political speeches and doc- 
uments, which I urged upon him to distribute among his neigh- 
bors. When bed-time came I climbed a ladder to the attic in 
which there was just room enough under the shingles for a 
clean sweet bed where I had a delightful night's rest. After 
a good breakfast in the morning, Wilson accompanied me on 
my way. We soon came to a well-beaten road and I found I 
was on what was called ' * The Quaker Divide. ' ' Near a large 
Quaker meeting house we met one of Mr. Wilson's relatives, 
a fine looking old fashioned Quaker gentleman, to whom he in- 
troduced me, and I stated my business. I had an interest- 
ing interview with the old Quaker and also supplied him 
with a number of congressional speeches, and before I left 
him he looked at me very earnestly and asked, how much 



44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

pay I received for the work I was doing. I told him noth- 
ing for my own services, but my team and buggy were furn- 
ished by the state central committee free of charge to myself. 
At first he appeared a little incredulous that I should be work- 
ing for nothing and traveling at my own expense, but after 
further talk with him he seemed to have every confidence in 
me and remarked very earnestly, ' ' Thee must be a very good 
man to do this work without pay." I told liim we must all 
''cast our bread upon the waters," and possibly it might re- 
turn to us after many days ; that this would indeed be a poor 
world if none of us were willing to make some sacrifices for 
the good of the country. I bid the two Quakers an affec- 
tionate good-bye and went on my way much gratified. The 
prairie was dotted here and there with comfortable, well kept 
homes. It was a beautiful October morning, what we then and 
always called in Iowa ''Indian Summer." A slight haze 
rested upon the horizon, and here and there the ripening corn 
gave a glow and variety to the landscape. I was deeply im- 
pressed with the beauty and glory of my adopted state of 
Iowa, and I thought then, as I afterwards expressed the 
thought in my centennial address at Philadelphia. "AVhen 
in the plentitude of His goodness the Divine Hand formed the 
great meadow between the Mississippi and Missouri, and the 
finger of Divine Love traced the streamlets and rivers that 
drain and fertilize its almost every acre. He designated it not 
for the place of strife, but for the home of peace and plenty, 
and intended that the ploughshare and pruning hook should 
here achieve their greatest triumphs." 

In the fall of the year 1859, I bought from Dr. William P. 
Davis a quarter acre of ground just north of Bird's Addition 
in the city of Des Moines, having upon it an old square frame 
house without foundation or cellar, which I afterwards re- 
paired and moved into with my family. My wife's sister 
Julia had been with us during the summer and became en- 
gaged to be married to Mr. John Alexander Woodard, a 
bachelor who had been engaged in the mercantile business and 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 45 

failed in the hard times of 1856. He was then clerking and 
selling goods for Mr. Reuben Sypher. I thought it prudent 
and made condition with Mr. Woodard that he should make it 
a part of the marriage contract with my sister-in-law that he 
would purchase from Mr. Sypher in part payment of his 
wages the lot on the comer of Fourth street and Crocker, and 
build them a house thereon. He readily agreed with this propo- 
sition, and the deed was made to Julia E. McMeekin, and the 
marriage took place on the first of December following, and a 
house was built on the lot the ensuing summer, where they 
had their home for many years free from any annoyance from 
his creditors. When the bankrupt law took effect after that, 
I obtained for him a discharge in bankruptcy from his old 
debts. 

In 1860 I was chosen by the republican state convention of 
Iowa one of the tliirty-two delegates that represented our 
state in the great national convention that met at Chicago and 
nominated Abraham Lincoln as its candidate for President. 
I attended that convention and had the honor of being one of 
the eight original Lincoln men of the delegation, and voted 
for Mr. Lincoln on every ballot. That convention was per- 
haps the greatest and most important that was ever convened 
in the history of our nation. The entire New York delega- 
tion was urging the nomination of William H. Seward. I was 
opposed to Mr. Seward's nomination, first, because I pre- 
ferred Mr. Lincoln and had the most unbounded confidence in 
his honesty and patriotism, and secondly, because I disliked 
many of the men who were urging Mr. Seward's nomination. 
The reputation of Thurlow Weed and that class of New York 
politicians created in my mind a distrust, and I felt that we 
had arrived at a crisis in our national history where we should 
take no chances. 

After the nomination of Mr. Lincoln at Chicago the repub- 
lican state convention met at Iowa City. I was a candidate 
before the convention for nomination for the office of Attorney 
General of the state. Only three of the delegates from my 



46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

own county voted for me in that contest. My principal op- 
ponent was John A. Kasson of Des Moines. He had been 
chairman of the republican central committee of the state for 
the current year, and without my knowledge had been se- 
cretly corresponding with various republicans of the state, so- 
liciting their support for the nomination, and secretly hiding 
the fact from me, and professing to be my friend and in favor 
of my nomination. Mr. H. M. Hoxie also one of the delegates 
of that convention from Polk county, had been a secretary of 
the state committee and was also secretly working for and 
with Mr. Kasson for my defeat. I had many warm friends 
and supporters in the convention, particularly from Lee and 
Van Buren counties and the southeni part of the state, and 
many from other parts of the state with whom I had formed 
a personal acquaintance whilst filling the offices respectively 
of clerk of the house and secretary of the senate. There were 
three other candidates for the nomination besides Mr. Kasson 
and myself, and I received the nomination on the third ballot. 
After my return home I arranged my affairs so as to make 
an extensive canvass of the state. I exchanged a small tract 
of land I had in the western part of Van Buren county with 
Mr. Manning for a covered buggy and harness and a pair of 
horses, and in the latter part of September arranged a series 
of appointments, the first of which was at Newton, in Jasper 
county. As my team was somewhat unaccustomed to the road 
I started one Sunday afternoon and drove east as far as 
Mitchellville, and stayed all night with my friend Thomas 
Mitchell of that place. On Monday morning I started early 
for Newton. I filled my satchel with political documents and 
occupied my time during the drive in trying to arrange my 
speech. I never wrote out my speeches or attempted to com- 
mit anything to memory. My plan was to study the subject 
thoroughly that I proposed discussing, and simply arrange 
the order of its presentation. While absorbed in this work 
I reached Skunk river, drove up on the causeway to the bridge, 
which at the entrance of the bridge was about six feet above the 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 47 

level of the surface of the ground. As my off horse put his foot 
upon the first plank of the bridge it proved to be loose and the 
plank flew up, striking the shin of the other horse. At this 
my team became frightened and commenced backing to the 
south of the causeway, and for a moment I apprehended that 
I should be precipitated over the causeway with the horses 
and buggy falling upon me. I collected the reins hastily in 
my left hand, seized the whip, yelled to the horses, struck the 
off horse violently with the whip, using my left hand at the 
same time to draw them around onto the road so that they 
would not take me over to the other side of the causeway. I 
felt the near hind wheel of the buggy falling over the embank- 
ment, but the horses sprang forward, unfortunately breaking 
the axle, and as I brought them around into the road I stepped 
out of the buggy, threw the lines onto the wheel, and let them 
run. They did not run more than one or two hundred 
yards before the lines, which had caught in the wheel, 
wound them up, and the lines being strong it stopped 
them. I followed hastily, detaching the horses from 
the buggy, tied them to the trees, then walked about two 
miles to a farm house where I engaged a farmer with 
his farm wagon to take my buggy to Newton and to lend 
me a saddle upon which I rode one horse and led the other. In 
this way I reached Newton for late dinner, and taking my 
broken buggy to a blacksmith engaged for its immediate re- 
pair, as it was necessary for me to take the road again early 
next morning to meet my next appointment, which was at 
Grinnell, in Poweshiek county. I had a small audience that 
afternoon at two o 'clock in the court house, and made them a 
short speech, appointing another meeting for 7 :30 that night. 

The next morning my vehicle was in good order and I took 
the road, reaching Grinnell in good time for my meeting, 
which was at night. 

In arranging my appointments I reached the Mississippi 
river at Clinton. Crossing the river I drove over to Mt. Car- 
roll, Illinois, for the purpose of a day's rest and to visit my 



48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

relatives at that place. I found there my aunt, Ann Austin, 
and her two boys, also her oldest daughter, married to a man 
by the name of William Brotherton. Mr. Brotherton and the 
two boys were ardent republicans, and being advised of my 
coming, they had advertised me for a speech on Saturday 
night. I spoke to a crowded house for nearly three hours 
amid great enthusiasm. The next day, Sunday, the county 
central committee waited on me and insisted that I should ar- 
range a week with them and speak at various points in their 
county, which I necessarily declined to do. 

On Sunday afternoon I drove north to a little mining vil- 
lage called Elizabeth where my aunt, Sarah Nourse, a maiden 
sister of my father, was then living and teaching school. I 
stayed all night at this town of Elizabeth, and my aunt enter- 
tained me during the evening until nearly eleven o 'clock with 
an account of the various propositions of marriage she had 
had from some half dozen bachelors and widowers, all of which 
she had declined, giving as an all-sufficient reason for it that 
her suitors were not men of education and sufficient intelli- 
gence to make companions for her, and she suspected them of 
wanting what little money and property she had. 

The next day, Monday afternoon, I drove to Galena where 
I remained all night and heard the cheering news of the 
result of the state elections of Ohio and Indiana, both 
states giving handsome republican majorities. This really 
assured the success of Mr. Lincoln at the approaching Novem- 
ber election. 

The next morning, Tuesday, I crossed the Mississippi river 
at Dubuque, having had an appointment to speak in Dubuque 
that day. It so happened that the democrats had prepared 
for a grand democratic rally that day, at which Mr. Douglas, 
their candidate for President, expected to be present. At the 
suggestion of my friends I stayed over until the next day. I 
was anxious to hear Mr. Douglas, and attended his meeting, 
which was well attended by his followers and friends. I could 
not but feel sorry for and have some sympathy with the man 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 49 

when he came upon the platform to speak. He had of course 
heard the news of the result of the elections in Ohio 
and Indiana, and knew that the hopes and aspirations of his 
life were forever blighted. Douglas was called ''the little 
giant, ' ' and he truly was a brave man. He stood before the 
audience, knowing that his fate as a candidate for the presi- 
dency was forever sealed, but he never flinched or gave any 
evidence whatever of his disappointment. I wished to hear 
Mr. Douglas, not because I expected to hear an5i:hing new, for 
I had studied well his speeches and knew his views upon the 
subjects about which he was to talk, but I wished to study his 
method and manner, for I knew he was an experienced man 
upon the platform. He never spoke a sentence without first 
inhaling a full breath. He made his sentences short and never 
uttered a word when his lungs were exhausted. He always 
expressed himself in clear and concise language, and I think 
never changed the construction of his sentences or attempted 
their construction after he had commenced their utterance; 
hence there was no confusion, no hesitancy, and no exertion 
of the voice beyond what he anticipated when he began his 
utterances. I learned much from his manner of speaking, 
and after that tried to practice his art and skill in the manage- 
ment of my voice, and I think with some success, for during 
that canvass I frequently met our republican speakers with 
their throats inflamed and bandaged and so hoarse that they 
scarcely could be heard, whilst during the seven weeks that I 
was engaged in speaking, I spoke on an average once or twice 
a day without any difficulty or hoarseness or inflammation in 
my throat. I frequently relieved my voice by dropping into 
a conversational tone, finding this much easier for myself and 
much more agreeable to my hearers. I indulged frequently in 
anecdotes and amusing illustrations, and endeavored not only 
to convince the people by arguments but at the same time to 
entertain them. 

I remained at Dubuque and spoke in the German theater on 
Wednesday night. The republicans, of course, were enthusi- 



50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

astic and joyous. The result of the elections in Ohio 
and Indiana had aroused and confirmed their hopes of success. 
I spoke from the stage of the theater for three long hours. 
I interspersed my remarks with frequent anecdotes that were 
received by the audience with shouts of applause. At one 
time after the general applause had partially subsided, some 
gentleman near the orchestra box was seized with a second 
paroxysm of laughter, and actually rolled off his seat to the 
floor shouting and screaming with delight. The entire au- 
dience arose to their feet, looking over the heads of those in 
front to see what had happened. I beckoned to them to please 
be seated, that it was only one of the new converts that was 
shoutingly happy. This awakened another round of laughter 
and applause, and I think everyone, unless it might have been 
some disappointed democrat present, was uproariously happy. 

It would not be profitable to undertake to give an account 
of my many meetings during that canvass. I traveled about 
fifteen hundred miles, spoke in more than fifty counties of the 
state, continuing my labors up to the night before the Novem- 
ber election. 

One incident I recall that probably is worth recording: 
I spoke at Glenwood, in Mills county, to a large audience of 
ladies and gentlemen, and after discussing the political issues 
of the day I told them that there was a matter of a personal na- 
ture that I had not yet mentioned and that I would communi- 
cate to them in confidence: that I had been nominated by the 
republican state convention as their candidate for Attorney 
General of the state, that after my nomination I was somewhat 
doubtful as to the course I ought to pursue, whether or not it 
would be best to stay at home and trust to the strength of my 
party, or whether I ought to go over the state and discuss the 
political questions of the day and let the people know and hear 
for themselves what manner of man I was, that they might 
judge for themselves as to my competency to fill the important 
office for which I was a candidate. That in all cases of doubt or 
difficultj^ I had made it a rule to consult my wife, and I laid the 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 51 

matter before her, asking her advice as to what she thought 
it was best for me to do ; that she immediately decided that 
I must go and speak to the people and let them see and hear 
me, adding that I could trust the people, that the people of 
Iowa beyond question knew and appreciated a good man 
when they could see and hear him. The audience shouted 
their applause at this conclusion of my address, and when I 
came down from the platform many friends came and shook 
hands with me, and especially the ladies, assuring me that the 
decision of my wife was correct. 

The result of the election is a matter of history. Mr. 
Lincoln received the electoral vote of Iowa by some fifteen 
thousand majority, as did also every candidate on the republi- 
can ticket, including myself. At the close of my first term I 
was renominated and re-elected without opposition. 

The duties of my office as Attorney General of the state 
consisted in advising the Governor and state officers when 
called upon by either of them for my opinion, and also when 
requested by that body to give my opinion to the general assem- 
bly, also to represent the state in all criminal cases appealed 
to the supreme court of the state. Our supreme court at that 
time met twice a year ; to-wit, in April and October, in the city 
of Davenport, Iowa, and my duties required me to attend 
there during the sessions of the court. The judges of the 
court, a reporter, and myself, and most of the attorneys visit- 
ing the court from time to time, boarded at the Burtis House, 
an excellent hotel kept by Dr. Burtis at that time. It made 
up a pleasant party, and it was rather a pleasant episode in 
my professional life. The only important opinion I was called 
upon to give to the general assembly was as to the consti- 
tutionality of the proposed law providing for the soldiers' 
vote. The supreme court of Pennsylvania had held a similar 
statute under their constitution to be unconstitutional and 
void. I examined the question carefully, because it was one 
of great importance. So many of our loyal voters in the state 
were absent from the state as soldiers in the Civil War, and 



52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

there was a great danger that those who sought to embarrass 
the prosecution of the war might place in control of our state 
affairs men inimical to the cause of the Union and nation. 
I gave an opinion to the legislature that the proposed law was 
constitutional. It was passed and afterwards sustained by 
the unanimous opinion of the judges of our supreme court, and 
from that time forward there was no question about the politi- 
cal status and conduct either of our state legislatures or our 
representatives in the national congress. 

Soon after the opening of the Civil War the legislature of 
Iowa was called together in extra session, and enacted a law 
providing for the issuing of $800,000 of war defense bonds to 
be sold for the purpose of providing means to equip and mus- 
ter into service the troops to be furnished by Iowa for the 
national cause. It also provided for three state commissioners 
with authority to put these bonds upon the market and seU 
the same at the best rate they could obtain. A number of 
other states in the Union had also provided for the issuing of 
bonds and the raising of means to arm and equip their 
soldiers. Hence when these commissioners went to New York 
for the purpose of putting our bonds upon the market, no de- 
sirable bids could be obtained. Our Secretary of State, Eli- 
jah Sells, had been ordered or requested by Governor Kirk- 
wood to take these bonds to New York in order that they 
might be ready for delivery in case of sale. There was dan- 
ger to be apprehended that the commissioners might attempt 
to hypothecate these bonds, or pledge them for a loan of 
money. The bonds bore eight per cent interest per annum, 
and they would constitute a gi'eat prize if the money sharks 
could get hold of them and sell them at any price they might 
bring in a money market then flooded with similar paper. 
Being advised of the situation, I accompanied the Secretary 
of State to New York, at my own instance and expense, for 
the purpose of advising the Governor and commissioners that 
under the law they had no authority to pledge or hypothecate 
these bonds, but could only sell them in the manner expressly 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 53 

provided by the statute. I had an opportunity of giving this 
advice, which I did very readily in New York, and I had the 
satisfaction of seeing the bonds brought back to our state and 
sold at a fair price to our own people. 

My salary as Attorney General was one thousand dollars 
a year and a contingent fund of four hundred dollars addi- 
tional each year. My official duties occupied about one-half 
of my time, and I continued in the general practice, except as 
to criminal cases, which yielded me about fourteen hundred 
dollars additional, making my income during these four years 
about twenty-eight hundred dollars which was rather more 
than any state officer or even judge of the supreme court re- 
ceived at that time. 

Upon the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in 1860 John A. 
Kasson, the man whom I had defeated for the nomination of 
Attorney General of the state, went to Washington City and 
secured the appointment as Second Assistant Postmaster Gen- 
eral, which position he held until the fall of the year 1862, 
when he secured the nomination for congress from the repub- 
lican congressional convention of this, the then fifth congres- 
sional district. 

Upon the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1865 for his second 
term, I became an applicant for the position of United States 
District Attorney, putting my application in the hands of 
Senator Harlan. I also had letters from all of our members 
of congress and from Senator Grimes favoring my appoint- 
ment. Mr. Kasson claimed that the appointment fell in his 
congressional district and he was entitled by courtesy to nomi- 
nate the person who should receive it. Mr. Withrow, who was 
still a personal and political friend of Mr. Kasson, came to me 
personally and stated that if I would write to Mr. Kasson and 
signify my willingness to receive the appointment as coming 
through him, that Mr. Kasson would have the appointment 
made. I accordingly wrote to Mr. Kasson, stating that if he 
was disposed to recommend my appointment upon consider- 
ations of my fitness for the office and without reference to any 



54 AUTOBIOGRAPflY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

supposed personal obligations to favor his political aspira- 
tions for the future, that I would be willing so to receive it. 
Upon receiving this letter, Mr. Kasson immediately went to 
the President and presented to him the name of Caleb Bald- 
win, of Council Bluffs, stating that Senator Harlan had been 
consulted and had agreed to Mr. Baldwin's appointment. Mr. 
Harlan, upon being advised of what Mr. Kasson had done, 
immediately went to the President, and at his request the ap- 
pointment was suspended. On the 14th day of April ensuing, 
Mr. Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson, the Vice 
President, succeeded to the presidency. I immediately re- 
quested Mr. Harlan to pursue the subject of my appointment 
to the office no farther, and there the controversy dropped. 
I have regarded my disappointment in this matter as rather 
fortunate than otherwise, as I was not in harmony with the 
administration of Andrew Johnson and should not have cared 
to have held office under his administration. 

Pending the presidential election the people of Iowa were 
fully advised as to the threats that were made that in case of 
Mr. Lincoln's election the southern states would secede from 
the Union. They were also fully aware of the fact that the 
then national administration was doing all it could to en- 
courage the southern politicians who were uttering these 
threats. The position of Mr. Buchanan's administration was 
that the constitution of the United States conferred on the 
National Government no power to coerce a state, or, in plain 
terms, to preserve the nation and prevent its disintegration. 
The fact that civil war might be inaugurated and was threat- 
ened in case Mr. Lincoln was elected was well understood and 
duly considered. The people of Iowa indulged in no feelings 
of hatred toward the people of any state or section of the 
Union. There was, however, on the part of the majority a 
cool determination to consider and decide upon our national 
relations to the institution of slavery, uninfluenced by any 
threat of violence or civil war. 

After the election of Mr. Lincoln and the call for troops to 
aid in putting down the rebellion, I visited Washington City 



REMOVED TO DES MOINES 55 

for the first time in my life. The rebel troops occupied the en- 
tire country between Richmond and Manassas and menaced 
the national capital. On the Saturday before the battle of 
Bull Run, so-called, I went in company with some friends in 
a carriage as far as Fairfax Court House. I saw there a num- 
ber of Union soldiers that had been wounded the day before 
in the artillery engagement witii the rebel general, Beaure- 
gard. I returned to Washington Saturday night and arranged 
with General Curtis, then our member of congress from Iowa, 
to go out in the morning by rail to the place of the antici- 
pated battle. I remained at Alexandria until after noon on 
Sunday with the hope of getting transportation on the railway. 
We could hear the booming of the cannon during the after- 
noon. I remained in Alexandria till about two o'clock. On 
finding the expected transportation on the railway delayed 
and doubtful, I returned to Washington. About midnight we 
received news of the disastrous results of the engagement 
that day. The next morning, Monday, I started home on an 
early train, as my professional engagements that week re- 
quired my presence in Des Moines. During the great strug- 
gle that followed for the preservation of our nation I spent 
much of my time and all of my income in traveling over the 
state and attending public meetings, and made frequent ad- 
dresses in behalf of the Union cause. I did not en^er the 
volunteer service as a soldier or officer of the Union army for 
the reason that I was satisfied I could do more good to the 
cause in the position I then occupied as Attorney General of 
the state. I did at one time apply to Governor Kirkwood for 
a military appointment as a major in tlie Third Iowa Cavalry. 
He very bluntly told me that he did not think he could spare 
me from the place that I then filled, and he did not think it 
good policy to spoil a good lawyer for the sake of making a 
poor soldier. I had no military education and no knowledge 
of military affairs, and my health was such that I could not 
have been of any use to the service except in a position where 
I could take better care of myself than was possible as a 
soldier in the ranks. 



CHAPTER IV 
Resumes the Pkactice of Law 

At the close of my second term of office, to-wit, January, 
1865, I resumed the practice of law. The firm of Williamson 
& Nourse, which had existed since my settlement in Des 
Moines in 1858, had taken into partnership Jacob M. St. John, 
formerly of Keosauqua, Iowa. As I now had to depend en- 
tirely upon my practice for my income I dissolved partner- 
ship with Messrs. Williamson and St. John and commenced to 
practice alone. 

In the fall of 1865 Judge Gray, the judge of our district 
court, died, and Governor William M. Stone, without any so- 
licitation upon my part, at the request of a number of the 
members of the bar of Polk county, October 16, 1865, appointed 
me to fill the unexpired term of Judge Gray, deceased. The 
salary of this position at that time was only $1300 a year, and 
I accepted of it after considerable hesitation. At the first term 
of court I held in the city of Des Moines it became my duty to 
try a number of cases for a violation of the laws of the state 
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, except beer or wine 
made from grapes or other fruit grown in this state. This 
wine and beer clause of the law had been adopted by the legis- 
lature by way of an amendment to what was called the Maine 
law that had been enacted by the legislature at its session in 
1854-5. A number of saloons had been established in Des 
Moines and licensed to sell native wine and beer, but in fact 
they all sold whiskey and other spirituous liquors. The grand 
jury had indicted some seventeen of these saloons as public 
nuisances under the law. The courts in Iowa prior to this 
time had adopted the policy of imposing slight fines upon these 
saloons about once a year, thereby establishing the very worst 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 57 

and the most reprehensible kind of a license. The sheriff and 
other officers of the county, elected by the people from time 
to time, were largely under the influence of these saloons and 
their patrons. When I called the first of these cases for trial 
it became necessaiy to fill up the jury panel from the by- 
standers, and when the sheriff called the name of a person 
that he directed to take a place upon the jury, I accidentally 
noticed that the next case for trial was a case against a de- 
fendant of the same name of the person called into the jury- 
box. I privately called the sheriff to my side and asked him if 
the person that he had placed upon the jury was the same per- 
son as the defendant in the next case, accused of a like offense 
of the one we were to try. After some hesitation he said he 
thought he was the same person. I told him that was not a 
proper discharge of his duties, that he must fill up the panel of 
the jury with good, law-abiding citizens, and not from those 
who stood charged with crime on the records of the court. He 
suggested that I should excuse the juror. I told him no, the 
mistake was his and not mine, and that he must correct his 
own mistakes, that he should go to the juror liimself and tell 
him and have him stand aside, and that he must be very care- 
ful whilst I presided in that court not to make any more such 
mistakes. The result was that he filled up the panel with good 
law-abiding citizens, and that defendant and sixteen others 
were tried and convicted within the next ten days. I did not 
pass sentence upon any of the defendants until all the trials 
were completed. In the meantime I was visited by a number 
of temperance men who felt anxious to know what character 
of sentence I was going to give to these persons. I told them 
it was not proper for me to receive any suggestions out of 
court, and if they had any to make it must be made in open 
court in the presence of the defendants themselves or their 
counsel. I did, however, give the matter very grave and 
serious consideration. This law in its spirit and in its letter 
was intended to prohibit the sale or establishing or keeping a 
place for the sale of intoxicating liquors, other than the wine 



58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

and beer excepted by the pro\dsions of the law. The slight 
fines that had theretofore been imposed for this offense had 
simply tolerated, and amounted in practice to a system of 
licensing these violations of the law. I felt it my duty to do 
something that should prohibit what the law prohibited. After 
the trials were all over I had the defendants all brought into 
court and gave them my views concerning the law and con- 
cerning the duty of every good citizen to obey and observe 
the law strictly and in good faith; that this law existed upon 
the statute books by the same authority as the law that protect- 
ed them in their persons and in their property, and that the dis- 
regard of it was simply to set at defiance the authority from 
which all our laws eminated. The man who kept the poorest 
and meanest of these saloons I fined only the sum of one hun- 
dred dollars, stating as a reason therefor that the witnesses up- 
on the trial had said they were ashamed to be seen in his saloon 
and hurried away as soon as possible ; that probably the class 
of men of whom he was making drunkards were not our most 
valuable citizens. I graded the fines against the others of the 
sixteen according to the class of persons I thought they were 
injuring, and the highest fine I imposed was five hundred dol- 
lars, against the man who had taken the trouble to prove in 
the trial that he kept a most respectable resort and that none 
but the very best citizens of the city were in the habit of drink- 
ing at his bar. This action upon my part not only created an 
excitement locally, but the news of it spread rapidly through- 
out the state and a number of our district judges followed my 
example. 

When I assumed the duties of judge of the district I found 
the dockets much crowded with cases that had been delayed, 
chiefly because of the unnecessary consumption of time by 
attorneys in the trial of their causes. For instance, one case 
in Polk county that involved only the question of the identity 
of a calf worth three or four dollars had occupied two weeks 
of the time of the court in its former trial. When I called the 
case for trial a number of attorneys suggested to me that the 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 59 

case would probably consume the balance of the term, and they 
might as well dismiss their witnesses and continue their 
causes. I told them that they were probably mistaken as to 
the time that would be occupied in the trial of that case. The 
first witness in behalf of the plaintiff was a timid young girl 
about fourteen years of age, a daughter of the plaintiff. She 
told in a simple straightforward way what she knew about the 
marks on the calf that her father had claimed, and her belief 
that it was her father's calf. The attorney for the defendant 
unfortunately was somewhat under the influence of liquor, and 
putting both heels up on the trial table, he leaned back and in 
a very rude, aggressive manner addressed the young girl, say- 
ing, "I suppose you put in about all of your time examining 
the calves on your father's farm, don't you?" I immediately 
reproved the attorney and asked him if he had any questions 
to ask the witness in regard to the marks upon the calf or its 
identity. lie replied in a haughty manner that he supposed 
he could examine the witness in his own way and ask his own 
questions. I immediately told the witness to stand aside and 
asked the plaintiff to call the next witness. The attorney then 
said he had not cross-examined the witness and wished to do 
so. I merely remarked that I had given him an opportunity 
to do so and he had not improved it, and he could save his 
strength for the next witness. The result of this kind c f dis- 
cipline was that the case was tried within two days instead of 
two weeks, and the great calf case was disposed of. I only 
give this as a specimen of the reforms that I tried to intro- 
duce into our courts. 

In the most of the counties of our district, which embraced 
seven at that time, we had no court houses. My first court in 
Warren county had to be held in the old Methodist church. 
It had been the custom to fill the aisles and the space about 
the altar with saw-dust, with one table as the trial table for the 
attorneys, and four or five rickety chairs. This saw-dust when 
it became heated, as it did in the winter time from the large 
stoves used in heating the room, filled the air with very fine 



60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

particles of dust that often settled upon the lungs of the mem- 
bers of the bar and the court, and was itself injurious to health. 
After impaneling the grand jury on the first day of the term 
at Indianola I announced that the court would adjourn until 
Tuesday and that the sheriff would clean the room of this saw- 
dust and furnish matting for the aisles and the place 
about the platform, and also furnish an additional table for the 
use of the attorneys and a dozen good substantial chairs. The 
sheriff informed me in open court that the board of super- 
visors had refused to furnish such conveniences, and probably 
would not allow the bills if he should purchase these articles. 
I advised him that it was his duty to obey the orders of the 
court, and to present liis bill to the supervisors and if they 
failed to allow the bill to take his appeal to the district court 
and I would see that he recovered judgment and got his pay. 
Sufficient to say that the next morning the matting was laid, 
the table and chairs were furnished in good order, and I never 
heard of any difficulty about the allowance of the bills by the 
board of supervisors. I pursued the same policy in Madison 
and several other counties of the district, and never heard that 
I lost favor with anybody because I insisted on having a decent 
court. 

On the 3d of March, 1866, at a subsequent term of the court 
held in Warren county, Mr. Thomas F. Withrow, an attorney 
of the Polk county bar and my neighbor, came into court one 
morning just before noon in company with John A. Kasson, 
then a representative in congress from this district and a resi- 
dent of the city of Des Moines. Mr. Withrow filed with the 
clerk of the court a petition for divorce in behalf of Mr. Kas- 
son 's wife, and asking for a divorce on the grounds that Mr. 
Kasson had been guilty of adultery. To this petition Mr. Kas- 
son filed an answer admitting his guilt, and both parties asked 
for an immediate hearing of the cause. I dismissed the jury 
then impaneled and announced that the court would not adjourn 
but remain open for business, asking the clerk and sheriff to 
remain, and that the bystanders and others were at liberty to 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 61 

retire. I read over the papers carefully and told Mr. Withrow 
that I could not grant the petition upon the answer ; that if he 
had any evidence it must be produced in open court as I must 
be satisfied of the existence of the facts alleged in the petition. 
Mr. Withrow said he had the letters of the defendant written 
to his wife from time to time, fully acknowledging his guilt, 
and he would return to the hotel and get his satchel containing 
these letters and produce them in open court if I required it. 
Mr. Kasson then begged of Mr. Withrow not to produce those 
letters, and turning to me said he would himself be a witness 
as to the facts and thought that ought to be sufficient. I told 
him I could not grant a divorce that would have the appear- 
ance of being granted merely upon the consent of the parties, 
that I wished to be satisfied fully that there was no collusion 
in the matter between himself and wife, and that he was in 
fact guilty as charged. He assured me that there was no col- 
lusion, that the charge was actually true and that the facts 
actually existed as charged against him. At this he broke 
down and professed almost to cry, and I told Mr. Withrow to 
prepare the decree of divorce. It was accordingly prepared, 
reciting that it was granted upon evidence of the truth of the 
allegations of the petition, and I accordingly signed the decree. 

Upon my return to Des Moines at the close of the session, 
the legislature then being in session, I was waited upon by 
one or more members of the general assembly, suggesting that 
there was a rumor that the divorce of Mr. Kasson 's wife had 
been procured and granted simply by consent of parties, and 
they proposed to introduce a bill for an act to prevent such 
divorces in the future. I explained that the rumor was en- 
tirely unfounded and that the divorce had been granted upon 
satisfactory evidence offered in open court. I recite these 
facts at some detail because of their importance with refer- 
ence to results, and what occurred tliat fall, 1866. 

Mr. Kasson was a candidate for re-nomination to congress. 
The opposing candidate was General G. M. Dodge, then a resi- 
dent of Council Bluffs. I did not take any active part in this 



62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

contest further than to express my preference for General 
Dodge, and that I could not consistently, with my views of pro- 
priety, support Mr. Kasson under the circumstances. When 
the conventions were held that fall for nominating delegates 
to the convention that should nominate congressmen, district 
judge, and prosecuting attorney, the Polk county convention, 
being under the control of Kasson 's friends, nominated the 
same set of delegates to attend both the congressional and the 
district conventions. After very heated contests in the conven- 
tion for nomination of congressmen, Mr. Kasson was defeated, 
and I was informed by the delegation that they would not sup- 
port me for the nomination for district judge because I had re- 
fused to help them in the matter of nominating Mr. Kasson. 
The next day when the convention met for the nomination of 
judge and district attorney I went before the convention in 
person and withdrew my name from the convention, stating 
as a reason therefor that I could not with propriety 
be a candidate before that convention without the support of 
the delegates from my own county. The convention nomi- 
nated Mr. Maxwell, then district attorney, for judge. My office 
did not expire until the ensuing January, but I at once sent my 
resignation to the Governor of the state, thus terminating my 
judicial career on August 1, 1866. 

In this contest for congress, Mr. H. M. Hoxie and Mr. 
Thomas F. Withrow, formerly warm friends and supporters 
of Mr. Kasson, had abandoned him and were active supporters 
of General Dodge. 

Upon my retirement from the bench, the members of the 
Polk county bar had a meeting and adopted veiy compli- 
mentary resolutions which they had enrolled and were kind 
enough to present to me as a testimonial of their approval of 
the manner in which I had discharged my duties as judge of 
the court. 

The salary of judge of the district court at that time was 
the meager sum of thirteen hundred dollars a year, out of 
which I paid my own expenses on the district. During my 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 63 

term of office as Attoniey General I had spent a considerable 
part of my income in attending public meetings and traveling 
through the state, addressing public assemblies upon the issues 
growing out of the war. I had not accumulated sufficient 
means to pay for my homestead and I now determined, as far 
as practicable, to devote myself to my practice as an attorney 
and accumulate something for the future. 

During the administration of Governor William M. Stone, 
his private secretary had endorsed a number of warrants is- 
sued by the Treasurer of the United States in favor of the 
state of Iowa, known as ' ' swamp land warrants. ' ' Governor 
Stone had entrusted the detail of the business of his office to 
his private secretary. These warrants came into the hands 
of the secretary and he assumed the responsibility of en- 
dorsing the Governor's name upon them from time to time, 
and having them cashed at the Second National Bank. At 
first he paid this money over to the State Treasurer, but as 
no inquiry was made as to the transactions and Governor 
Stone was paying but little attention to the details of busi- 
ness in the office, he cashed a number of these warrants and 
appropriated the money to his own use and purchased con- 
siderable real estate in his own name. 

On the first of January following, these transactions be- 
came public and the Governor repudiated the authority of 
the secretary to make the endorsements upon the drafts. He 
procured from the secretary mortgages upon considerable of 
the property purchased by him to secure so much of the pro- 
ceeds of these drafts as remained unaccounted for. The 
grand jury indicted the secretary for a number of these tran- 
sactions for forging the Governor's signature. This secretary 
applied to me through Mr. Withrow, about the time of my 
resignation as judge, to employ me as counsel to assist in 
his defense. The secretary had no money or means to pay 
me for my services and as he already had able and efficient 
counsel, I declined the employment. 

About the same time suits were brought to foreclose these 



64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

mortgages given by the secretary, and also to hold the bank 
responsible for the moneys that had not come into the hands 
of the State Treasurer. Pending these suits of a civil char- 
acter, by agreement of the parties and their counsel, the case 
was referred to me as referee. During the summer I oc- 
cupied several weeks in taking the testimony carefully before 
a stenographer and reported the same with my conclusions 
of fact and law to the district court, which report was con- 
firmed by the district court and upon appeal to the supreme 
court by the secretary, that court also affirmed my decision, 
and under these judgments the property was sold and the 
state partly remunerated for the loss. 

Governor Stone also solicited me to act as special pros- 
ecutor in prosecuting the indictments against the secretary 
for forgery, but in consideration of the fact that the secre- 
tary had failed to obtain my services in his defense because 
of his poverty, I declined to take any retainer or part in the 
prosecutions. 

I only recite these matters here because the secretary for 
his own purposes saw proper to make a number of virulent 
attacks upon me in various scurrilous articles that he pub- 
lished. As he was a man of no reputation and soon after 
left the state and died in obscurity and poverty, it is not 
necessary here to notice them. 

The indictments against the secretary were never tried, I 
think, for the reason that the trial would necessarily have 
exposed the fact of the Governor's carelessness and inatten- 
tion to the detail of his official duties. The Governor was 
otherwise not to blame for these unfortunate results and was 
himself free from any taint of dishonesty or corruption. 

Notwithstanding my determination to retire from politics 
and devote myself entirely to the practice of law, the repub- 
lican state convention, in the fall of 1867, without any pro- 
curement or solicitation upon my part, selected me as chair- 
man of the state central committee. I conducted the canvass 
that resulted in the election of Colonel Samuel Merrill. The 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 65 

entire cost of this canvass, including the employment of a 
secretary to the committee, was only the sum of $800, one- 
fourth of which the candidate for Governor contributed. I 
make note of this, for the reason that in later years, and at 
the time of the present writing, these central committees of 
the states and of the nation, are expending thousands and 
hundreds of thousands of dollars upon the election of the 
candidate of their party. 

I also at the time I was chairman of the state central com- 
mittee, furnished a team to Messrs. Thomas F. Withrow and 
F. W. Palmer, the latter then editor of the Register, to make 
a political canvass through the western half of the state. The 
very next year, 1868, Mr. Palmer became a candidate for 
congress in this district, Mr. Kasson being again a candidate 
for a seat in congress and again defeated in the nomination. I 
attended the congressional convention which was held at 
Council Bluffs that year, and was well satisfied with the result. 

In the summer of 1869 Judge George G. Wright, before 
that time one of the judges of the supreme court of the state 
of Iowa, and who had removed from Keosauqua and become 
a permanent citizen of Des Moines, called upon me to confer 
with me upon the subject of his election to the United States 
Senate. He was fearful that Mr. John A. Kasson, who had 
been a member of the house of representatives of th^ state 
the last previous session, would be a candidate for the state 
senate. He expressed himself as having no confidence what- 
ever in Mr. Kasson 's friendship toward him, and he desired 
me to be a candidate and seek the nomination for the posi- 
tion of state senator. I peremptorily declined, for the reason 
that I did not want to engage in any political fight or dif- 
ference with Mr. Kasson, and I could not afford at that time 
to leave my practice for a place in the state senate. Judge 
Wright insisted that he must have a friend in the senate from 
Polk county upon whom he could rely, and urged me to name 
some one who could be nominated and elected. After can- 
vassing the names of several gentlemen, I suggested the name 



66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

of B. F. Allen, then the leading banker in western Iowa, giv- 
ing as my reason for urging Mr. Allen's name that the friends 
of Mr. Kasson would not present Mr. Kasson's name in oppo- 
sition to Mr. Allen at that time, and the further reason that 
the people of Des Moines would at the then coming session of 
the general assembly ask for an appropriation to commence 
the building of a permanent capitol, and that Mr. Allen by 
virtue of his influence through the western part of the state 
especially could probably do more than any other man to 
secure such an appropriation. Judge Wright replied that 
the name of Mr. Allen had been suggested, but that he was 
satisfied that that gentleman would not accept of the nomina- 
tion because his business required his undivided attention. 
I suggested to Judge Wright that I thought I was better ac- 
quainted with Mr. Allen than himself, and that if a number 
of our friends would call upon Mr. Allen, one at a time, sug- 
gesting and urging him to be a candidate for the senate, in 
less than ten days he would not only be willing but anxious 
to receive the nomination. We accordingly pursued that 
course, and my prediction was verified. Mr. Allen became a 
candidate and received the nomination, but this did not pre- 
vent Mr. Kasson from again being a candidate for the nom- 
ination to the lower house. 

At the ensuing session of the legislature the desired ap- 
propriation for a permanent capitol at Des Moines was secured 
and Judge Wright was elected to the United States Senate, 
defeating William B. Allison who was then, for the first time, 
a candidate for that position. 

Mr. Kasson worked diligently to secure the appropriation 
for the capitol, as did also Mr. Allen in the senate and George 
W. Jones, Mr. Kasson's colleague, in the house. 

The citizens of Des Moines were very deeply interested in 
this appropriation for the permanent capitol, and eveiy one, 
including the ladies, brought to bear all proper influence upon 
the members to secure their votes for it. The great event 
of the winter socially was a grand party given by Mr. Allen 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 67 

in the splendid mansion which he had just finished, situated 
on Terrace Hill, now the property of Mr. F. M. Hubbell. The 
ladies of the town also gave an old fashioned concert at 
Moore's Hall, and an amateur theatrical performance at its 
close, of which I had the honor to be the author. The play 
was a farce illustrating the absurd features of a general as- 
sembly of the state of Iowa whose members were one-half 
ladies and the other half gentlemen. The play represented a 
session of the general assembly of the state of Iowa in the 
year 1900. The old capitol building, then occupied by the 
legislature, was supposed to have fallen down and to have 
killed a number of the members of the sitting general assem- 
bly, and one of the bills discussed by the mock legislature 
was a proposed appropriation for the benefit of the sui-viving 
families of the members who had lost their lives in the destmc- 
tion of the old capitol. The great discussion arose upon a 
motion to strike out the sum of sixty-two and one-half cents, 
and many of the speeches that had been made against the ap- 
propriation for the new capitol upon the question of economy 
were largely quoted from, by those opposed to the sixty-two 
and one-half cents. 

Another point made in the play was that upon the question 
of woman's rights. Dubuque county was supposed to be rep- 
resented by a lady weighing over two hundred pounds, and 
her husband, a dwarf, then residing in the city, who weighed 
about seventy pounds. Whenever a vote was taken upon any 
question respecting the rights of their sex tlie legislature di- 
vided, the men voting on the one side and the women always 
on the other. The lady who was supposed to be the wife of 
the dwarf, whenever a rising vote was taken upon a question 
of this nature, seized her supposed husband by the coat col- 
lar and tried to compel him to stand up and be counted on 
the side with the ladies. The frantic efforts of the little fel- 
low to desist and to vote with those of his own sex created 
uproarious applause and amusement for the audience, as did 
also the following part of the play : 



68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

The lady supposed to be the wife of the dwarf arose and 
addressed the speaker upon a question of privilege. She said 
she had just received a telegTam from home, stating that her 
youngest child was taken suddenly ill, and she requested the 
house to grant leave of absence for her husband, as it was 
very desirable that he should return home and care for the 
sick child. Another member of the house, a gentleman, arose 
and inquired whether the sick child was a boy or a girl. The 
lady responded with some acrimony that all her children were 
girls of whom she boasted she had seven, and was proud of it. 

The ladies of the city entered into this play with much 
spirit and performed their parts so admirably that it fur- 
nished a very rich entertainment for the winter. 

The bill making the appropriation for the erection of the 
permanent capitol finally became a law, and Mr. Kasson at- 
tempted to monopolize for himself all the glory of the achieve- 
ment. He had a brass band serenade him at his house, and 
John P. Irish of Iowa City make a congratulatory speech to 
him as the hero that had accomplished so much for the city 
of Des Moines. 

In the year 1874 Mr. Kasson was again nominated as the 
republican candidate for congress and was successful in the 
election. In this contest he was opposed by the then editors 
of the Register, a newspaper at that time published by the 
Clarkson brothers. 

In the early part of September, 1874, Mr. J. C. Savery, a 
citizen of Des Moines at that time, and for several years a 
client of mine, called upon me and showed me several letters 
in manuscript, relating to Mr. Kasson 's conduct while a mem- 
ber of the legislature of Iowa, and while a member of congress, 
and stated that he proposed to publish those letters as he 
was opposed to Mr. Kasson 's election. He asked my advice 
as his attorney as to whether or not there was anything in 
the letters that would make him liable to a civil suit for dam- 
ages in case of their publication. I advised him that if the 
letters were published and any suit was brought against him 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 69 

it would be necessary to show either the absolute truth of them 
or that they were published from proper motives and that he 
had a good reason to believe that the statements were true. 
As Mr. Savery had been my friend and client, and had not 
been at all prominent in political life, I advised him as a 
friend not to mix up in the contest and not to publish the 
letters, as he was a private citizen having no special interest 
in the question as to who would or would not be elected to 
congress. He, however, determined that the letters should be 
published and he gave them to the Register for publication. 
These letters were a very severe arraignment of Mr. Kasson's 
political career, and he thought proper to commence suit in 
the district court of Polk county against Mr. Savery and the 
editors of the Register for libel. Such a suit was brought 
October 21, 1874. Mr. Savery requested me to meet Mr. 
Clarkson for the purpose of consultation and with a view to 
my employment, in connection with Colonel Gatch, to defend 
the suit. I stated to them that the trial of the cause would 
involve a good deal of labor and time, that in the then state 
of political excitement, it would be very difficult to obtain a 
favorable result as the partisans of Mr. Kasson, if they 
secured a place upon the jury, would hardly give much weight 
to the testimony that might be produced. I signified, how- 
ever, that I was willing to take the employment, provided I 
was paid liberally for my professional sei-vices. To tliis Mr. 
Eichard Clarkson demurred very strongly, insisting that as 
Mr. Kasson was at least a political opponent and enemy of 
mine I ought to be willing to defend their case for an oppor- 
tunity to ventilate the character of the plaintiff in the suit. 
I stated to Mr. Clarkson that if I engaged in that suit it would 
be for the purpose of performing my duty as an attorney 
and officer of the court, and that I should under no circum- 
stances allow any personal matters of my own to influence 
what I might have to do or say in regard to the case; that 
the court room was not the place for a lawyer to gratify his 
personal feelings toward any of the parties to the litigation. 



70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

This conference tenninated without any agreement as to my 
employment. Afterwards, Mr. Savery came to me to see me 
alone and stated that Colonel Gatch had named a very small 
sum that he was willing to accept as compensation for assist- 
ing in the trial of the case. Mr. Savery urged upon me that 
he was then in poor circumstances financially and not able 
to pay any large fee ; that he had been my client and paid me 
considerable sums of money in times past and urged upon 
me that I ought to stand by him now in the time of liis trouble; 
that if I would accept of a like amount that Colonel Gatch 
had agreed to take for his services, he, Mr. Savery would pay 
half, and the Clarksons would pay the other half. I finally 
agreed to these terms. I tried the case. It consumed very 
considerable time in its preparation and trial. I copy here 
for information as to the character and scope of this case the 
opening statement that I made to the jury in regard to the 
issues involved, and the evidence that the defendants would 
offer in support of their defense. I always regarded the 
opening statement of a case as very important and that it 
should give to the jury a clear idea of the case they were to 
try, and of the facts upon which my client relied. I always 
believed strongly in the importance of first impressions, and I 
give this as a specimen of my skill in that behalf and for the 
further purpose of showing that it is utterly free from per- 
sonal feeling or ill will toward the plaintiff. The following 
is the opening statement as made and reported and published 
at that time: 

With permission of the Court, Gentlemen : In a case like this, it is 
hard for jurors to divest themselves entirely of their relations, politi- 
cally and socially, to parties, and come to the consideration of it as a 
dry question of fact under the instiniction of the court. 

The petition that has been read to you selects from certain articles 
that were published during the political canvass last fall, three certain 
items of charges made against Mr. Kasson that it is supposed by Mr. 
Kasson and his friends cannot be proved. Why those three particular 
charges out of quite a number should have been selected and the others 
passed by, I do not know. Probably any one of the other charges 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 71 

damaged him as much as any one of these. But for some reason best 
known to the plaintiff, he has been willing to stand all the injury and 
all the damage they did; because he didn't care about having them 
investigated in court. (He has a right to pick out and say this one is 
not true, and the other is not true, I put you on the proof of this.) 
These three particular charges are set out, and they claim so much 
damages for saying these particular things about this particular indi- 
vidual. The answer I will read to you and then try to give you some 
idea of the evidence that will be introduced on the part of the defend- 
ants. [Here Mr. Nourse read the answer relating to the first charge, 
and continued.] 

The facts are, these articles were written by Mr. Savery, and 
published in the Register, which was conducted and published by the 
defendants, Mr. R. P. Clarkson and Mr. J. S. Clarkson. 

[Reads from petition again, beginning with the words: "Now, 
sir, this was the way you played your hand."] 

Mr. Nourse continued: That is the answer we make to the first 
charge, relating to what is called the Smoky Hill route. I will say, in 
order that you may understand the evidence, and the facts in reference 
to that business, that Mr. Kasson was our member of congress in 1866, 
as will appear by the testimony, living and residing in this town, hav- 
ing for his colleagues Messrs. Price, Wilson, Allison, Judge Hubbard, 
and Mr. Grinnell. At that time one of the most vital questions to the 
people of Iowa, especially to tlie people of this congressional district, 
was whetlier or not the roads running east and west through Iowa 
should connect with, and become a part of the great Pacific route, ex- 
tending from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. Prior to 1866 congress 
had passed a law to aid the construction of the Pacific Railway. That 
law provided for several Iowa branches, and provided for a branch 
connecting with the St. Louis roads through Kansas, and provided that 
all these branches should unite at what is known as the one hundredth 
meridian, some distance w^est of Omaha. And a further provision in 
that bill was that the Union Pacific Railroad Company should build 
from the one hundredth meridian westward, meeting the road that 
should be built from California eastward. That was the Union Pacific 
Railroad proper. It will appear in evidence, gentlemen, that IMr. Kas- 
son, up to the very moment, the very day and hour on which he gave 
this vote in congress, had publicly and privately expressed himself in 
favor of the Omaha route, and delivered a public lecture against the 



72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Smoky Hill route, and explaining to the people of this locality the 
great advantages they were to derive from being upon the main line 
of this great thoroughfare. It will further appear in evidence, gentle- 
men, that the Kansas company, with the Pennsylvania Central road — 
in combination with the St. Louis interests — devised a scheme, in the 
winter of 1866, whereby they proposed to make the Kansas road, con- 
necting with St. Louis, the main branch of the Pacific road, and thus 
entirely defeat the building of the roads westward to the hundredth 
meridian, connecting with the Iowa roads. That was the scheme that 
was undertaken, and a bill having that object was rushed through the 
senate and came to the house of representatives, when Thaddeus Stevens 
took charge of it. The friends of the bill made a strong combination, 
refused to let it be referred to a committee, and refused even to allow 
it to be printed for the information of the house, and put it upon its 
passage under the spur and whip, crushed out debate, and crushed out 
explanation and discussion. Mr. Kasson was the only member of the 
house of representatives from Iowa that was permitted by Thaddeus 
Stevens, who had the floor, to occupy the time of the house, and to the 
surprise of everyone Mr. Kasson was found to have gone over to the 
enemy. We have the depositions of Hiram Price and James F. Wilson, 
and the Congressional Glohe that will explain to you his false position. 
Mark the explanation Mr. Kasson attempted to make on the floor of 
congress. He based his defense simply on the claim that the Kansas 
branch road would make a rival road and afford competition. 

This, gentlemen, will appear in evidence when we come to investi- 
gate this matter. It does not answer the proposition and but for the 
fact that the money was speedily raised and the road built from Omaha 
to reach the hundredth meridian, before the Kansas branch got their 
road built there, we would have lost everything; we would have lost 
all that congress had granted to us, to build the road up the Platte 
Valley. This has been carefully concealed by Mr. Kasson in all his 
explanations and in all his discussions and he has, with his oily, decep- 
tive subterfuges, tried to hide this enormity of his past life from his 
constituents. We hope, gentlemen, aided by the evidence of these 
members of congress, intelligent men, honest men, who have stood by 
the people of Iowa — we hope, with their depositions and the circum- 
stances, and the evidence contained in the Congressional Globe, to show 
this matter up to you. We will prove to you by men who were on the 
ground that no sufficient motive could honestly have induced that man 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 1Z 

to have cast his vote in the way he did ; that it was a surprise upon 
every intelligent man that knew what his pledges and promises and 
professions had been up to that time. Now, when this man offered 
himself as a candidate for congress last fall a year ago, one of the de- 
fendants in this case, who never was a candidate for office in his life, 
who had no interest in politics whatever, except as a citizen interested 
in our material interests, in our city, in our state, took the responsi- 
bility upon himself to ask Mr. Kasson through the public press to 
explain this, his extraordinary conduct and Ms treachery to his con- 
stituents; he got no answer except the insufficient one, the deceptive 
one, that Mr. Kasson wanted a rival railroad. Again, gentlemen, it 
will further appear in evidence that this was an additional subsidy of 
lands, that instead of connecting with the main line at the one hun- 
dredth meridian, this Kansas company was authorized to change its 
route and build the road to Denver, from Denver up to Cheyenne, and 
receive all the lands on either side of whatever route they may fix 
upon, and not requiring them to unite with the main line until they 
got fifty miles west of Denver, That they received on the line from 
Denver to Cheyenne the heart of the Territory of Colorado. That was 
a subsidy, and that the road got that subsidy, and that the parties who 
passed the bill undertook to deceive the members of congress in regard 
to it. 

Now, gentlemen, this is all there is on this first matter. This pub- 
lication was made, public attention was called to the fact that one of 
our members of congress, when asked how he would explain Mr. 
Kasson 's vote, said he didn't know ; but he could have taken twinty-five 
thousand dollars for his vote. That statement was made public by 
Mr. Savery in this communication to the citizens of this congressional 
district. Now this is the first matter which Mr. Kasson has chosen to 
bring before you, and to make an issue, and claim for damages to his 
character. Now we cannot prove — Mr. Kasson knows — we have no 
facilities for proving who was around there, or what money they had, 
or the means by which that bill was passed by congress. We can show 
you, gentlemen, only this one thing, that as a citizen of Iowa and as a 
representative of Iowa he betrayed his constituents wantonly ; that he 
was in a scheme in which there was money ; that is all ; that this com- 
munication was made to the public, stating the bare facts at a time 
when it was necessary for the public to know them and by a man who 
had no interest in maligning Mr. Kasson, or injuring him. Savery had 



74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

no personal feeling, and had no personal animosity towards him, but he 
felt, as a citizen, some indignation towards the man for the course he 
had pursued in congress. So much, gentlemen, for the first charge 
that was made. You are to judge whether that communication at the 
time it was made, and under the circumstances it was made, was 
justifiable. You are to take all the facts, and all the testimony with 
regard to it. Now as to the second matter that is set out in the answer. 

Mr. Barcroft: Will you just tell the jury whether the bill that 
Mr. Kasson voted for under the Iowa Railroad were not built on the 
continuous line ? 

Mr. Nourse : I have already stated, that but for the extraordinary 
efforts by which money was raised, and the road pushed to the hun- 
dredth meridian first and this scheme defeated, we would never have 
been on the main line. But no thanks to Mr. Kasson for it. We are on 
the main line because these men went to work with superhuman energy 
to get to the hundredth meridian first, and tliey got there first, and 
that is the reason we are on the main line. If we had not reached it 
before they did, we would not have had a dollar of money with which 
to have built our line, and the other would have been the main line. 
That is the fact as it will appear conclusively from the testimony in 
this case. Gentlemen, I invite your special attention to the second 
charge, for if I can succeed in getting the jury to understand this 
question it is the end of the plaintiff's case. Fortunately for us on 
this question we have pretty conclusive proof, and with all the gentle- 
man's ingenuity and that of his counsel, he will not be able to escape. 
We will show you, gentlemen, that in the year 1868 the old Des Moines 
Valley Railroad Company had forfeited her rights to the grant of lands 
that had been granted to her in the year 1858, by reason of not building 
the road as the original act required. The people of Boone county were 
dissatisfied because the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company had 
surveyed their road west up by Grand Junction, instead of going up the 
Des Moines river. Mr. Orr introduced a bill called the resumption bill. 
No. 139, in the house of representatives. That bill was read the first 
and second times, was ordered to be printed, and was referred to the 
railroad committee, of which Mr. Kasson was a member. The railroad 
committee prepared a substitute for that bill, as is set out here, in 
which they provided for a release of the company from all forfeitures 
and still allow them to have the lands and to build their road upon 
certain terms and conditions, and reported that bill back to the house 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 75 

of representatives as a substitute for house file No. 139. That substi- 
tute, gentlemen, is in Mr. Kasson's own handwriting, and we will be 
able to produce it here and show you the bill as he reported it origi- 
nally to the house of representatives. 

The records will show you, gentlemen, that after that bill came 
in, after this substitute was reported, Wilson of Tama county, with 
another gentleman constituting a minority of the committee on rail- 
roads, made a minority report in which they recommended what was 
called the "Doud amendment," or the Granger clause of that bill, in 
which they provided as set out in the answer : ' ' that the company ac- 
cepting the provisions of this act was at all times to be subject to legis- 
lative control. ' ' I will give you the very language of the amendment 
as it now appears in the law, so you may get the idea fully. [Reads.] 
**The company accepting the provisions of this act shall at all times 
be subject to such rules, regulations and rates of tariff for transpor- 
tation of freight and passengers as may from time to time be enacted 
by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa." The minority of the 
committee recommended that amendment, and it was adopted ; and it 
was the only amendment that ever was adopted by the legislature. 

We will prove to you, gentlemen, that a forgery was committed, 
and the following words interpolated into that bill : ' ' But the non- 
acceptance by the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company of this act 
shall not prevent all the foregoing provisions thereof from having the 
same operation and effect as if the same had been accepted by said 
company;" and we will prove to you that these words were agreed 
upon between Mr. Kasson and the railroad company's attorney, in a 
private room in the Savery House, and that he agreed to put them in 
the bill, and the attorney testifies that the provision escaped criticism. 
And this is the second charge : We charge him with so manipulating 
that bill as purposely to defeat the will of the legislature. That he did 
it fraudulently, and that he did it corruptly will be proved to you 
beyond a doubt ; that this charge was made, honestly believing it to be 
true, in order that the people of this congressional district might know 
the character of the man that was asking for their suffrages. After he 
voted against Wilson 's amendment, and failed to honestly defeat it. we 
are prepared to show that by an agreement between him and the gen- 
eral attorney of the road, he undertook to get this nullifying clause 
into the bill, and that he did get it in the bill, and that he did not get 
it there by the vote of the house. 



76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Mr. Barcroft: You do claim that you have any such allegation 
in your answer? 

Mr. Nourse : I claim that what we charge Kasson with was that 
he manipulated that proviso through the legislature, and we propose 
to prove it. We propose to prove that it came from him and originated 
with him. We may have other evidence on this point more full and 
complete that it is not necessary now to take the time to detail. 

The third specification, gentlemen, relates to the vote of Mr. Kas- 
son and his conduct with reference to the C, R. I. & P. R. R. Co. And 
here, fortunately, I can say to you that we are not without direct and 
satisfactory testimony. We thought that we could prove that he had 
taken money on both sides from both parties in the case, but we haven 't 
succeeded fully. We have evidence, however, of this state of facts: 
That Mr. Kasson in the early part of that session voted for a bill that 
had for its purpose and object the helping of Tracy, who was then the 
president of the road, to retain his power and his place as president, 
and to complete the road from here to Council Bluffs ; that a bill for 
that purpose was passed in the early part of the session and approved 
on the 11th of February, and that Mr. Kasson voted for it. Thus far 
all was right. It will further appear by the evidence that the legis- 
lature had a recess of a few weeks after that, and that Kasson disap- 
peared from here and turned up in Wall street. New York; that he 
was found in conference with the men connected with the Northwestern 
Railroad and who had bought up the stock of the Rock Island road, 
with a view of obtaining control of it, who were anxious to secure the 
repeal of the Tracy bill. We will prove to you that Kasson promised 
these men his influence to have that bill repealed; that he came back 
to Des Moines and was in conference with them, promising them his 
aid, that he subsequently changed his mind and abandoned them, that 
they didn't succeed; and that Mr. Tracy out of sheer gratitude, as 
Kasson claims, offered him five hundred dollars in money; that he 
(Kasson) took the money, but stipulated that it should be called a 
retainer. 

In his own deposition Kasson swears he got the money. But he 
says he didn't get the money until after the legislature adjourned, 
and when it was offered to him as a present, he said he couldn't accept 
of it unless it was offered to him as a retainer; and that Mr. B. F. 
Allen, who offered him the money, went away and came back again, and 
said that he could take it as a retainer; and that he supposed that 



RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW 77 

Allen had seen Mr. Tracy. This is the way Kasson gets out of this. 
We will prove to you by Mr. Tracy that he never had retained Mr. 
Kasson, or authorized anybody else to retain him for the company ; that 
he never requested Kasson to perform any professional services for 
that road; that he never performed any professional services for the 
road, and that he had been out of the practice of the law for years. It 
will further appear in evidence that Mr. Kasson has not practiced law 
since 1860 ; that this attempt to make it a retainer is simply a subter- 
fuge to cover up the taking of pay for his services in the legislature, 
to a railroad corporation. Now, this all came to the knowledge of these 
defendants, and they proposed, in good faith, to publish to the com- 
munity the facts in regard to Mr. Kasson 's conduct. It is said by 
plaintiff's attorney that they will show to you that the Clarksons were 
the personal enemies of Mr. Kasson. I will say to you, gentlemen, that 
it is not true, and that I don 't believe they will prove it ; I don 't believe 
in this community they can prove a thing that is not true. On the 
contrary, the Clarksons never had any personal or political difficulty 
with Mr. Kasson whatever. Every motive on earth that could induce 
men to act through favoritism was upon the other side of the question. 

Mr. Kasson had no desire to face his accusers, or subject 
himself to an examination before the jury. He was not pres- 
ent at the beginning of the trial and had taken the precaution 
to have his own deposition taken in New York upon inter- 
rogatories doubtless prepared carefully by himself, as the in 
terrogatories disclosed nothing as to the explanation he had 
invented for the purpose of rebutting the testimony against 
him. This would avoid any cross-examination. 

After the defendant's testimony had been introduced in 
part, however, the evidence seemed to make quite an impres- 
sion against the plaintiff's cause and his counsel in despera- 
tion telegraphed to him requiring him to come at once to Des 
Moines. After a few days, he put in his appearance and I 
immediately had a subpoena issued and served upon him, re- 
quiring his attendance as a witness. After we closed our 
evidence, Mr. Kasson disappeared between two days and we 
searched for him in vain in the state. His counsel, Mr. Bar- 
croft, offered his deposition taken in New York, then as re- 



78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

butting testimony, when the following colloquy occurred, which 
I here quote from the notes of the official reporter: 

Judge Nourse, for the defense, asked to have Mr. Kasson brought 
into court, stating that a subpoena had been issued for him, and as he 
was not present, asking an attachment for him. Mr. Barcrof t replied : 
''Whether he will be here or not, I don't know. I think he is out of 
the state. I don't know that he will be here, and I don't know that 
he will not, but think the probabilities are that he will not. We don't 
claim the right to read his deposition if he is present. He is not 
present, and is not in the state. I don't expect him to be here. " 

The deposition was then read. 

As already anticipated, the jury could not agree upon a 
verdict. Six of Mr. Kasson 's political friends upon the jury 
insisted on finding in his favor, and six who were not his 
political supporters and friends, some being democrats and 
some republicans, insisted on not finding a verdict in Ms 
favor. The case went over the term and was afterwards com- 
promised upon what terms I never understood, except that 
the plaintiff dismissed his suit and probably paid the costs, 
and Mr. Savery advised me that as part of the terms upon 
which the suit was to be dismissed, Mr. Kasson was to make 
a political speech at Moore's Opera House and Colonel Gatch 
and the Clarksons were to occupy the platform as indicative 
of their friendly appreciation of that gentleman, and I also 
with Mr. Savery was entitled to a like honor. Mr. Savery 
did not appear upon the platform and I utterly refused to 
recognize the right of anyone to contract for my appearance 
there, and I was conspicuously absent. 

Mr. Savery paid me his half of the fee that I was to re- 
ceive for my services, and upon presenting my bill for the 
other half to Mr. Eichard Clarkson, I found he had charged 
me up for printing the speech I had made to the jury, having 
at my request printed the revised copy of the speech in 
pamphlet fonn, and thus he squared the account, never pay- 
ing me one cent for my services in the case. 



CHAPTER V 

Some Important Law Suits 

It is not within the scope or purpose of this writing to 
enter into or discuss the merits of the various suits in which 
I was employed. I cannot, however, give any idea of the 
fifty years of my life during which I was engaged in a number 
of important suits, without reference to their nature and 
character, and the management to which I attributed impor- 
tant results. 

In the latter part of the year 1864, whilst in attendance 
at the supreme court at Davenport, I was retained by the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, in company 
with Mr. Thomas F. Withrow, to assist the general counsel 
of that corporation in a suit, then recently brought in the 
United States circuit court for the southern district of Iowa, 
enjoining the company and its agents and employees from 
putting a certain span of their bridge across the Mississippi 
river at the town of Clinton, Iowa. Mr. James Grant of 
Davenport and a Mr. Lincoln of Cincinnati had been employed 
by the river interests to prevent the completion of this bridge 
on the ground that it would prove an obstruction to the nav- 
igation of the river. Mr. Withrow and myself spent a day 
in examining the alleged obstruction to navigation, the com- 
pany furnishing us a steamboat in which we passed through 
the piers on which the drawbridge was to be placed. We re- 
turned to Des Moines late Saturday evening. The United 
States circuit court at Des Moines met the following Monday. 
On Sunday Mr. Withrow went to his office and carefully ex- 
amined the statutes of the United States relating to the 
powers of the court in granting injunctions. He sent for me 
in the afternoon. On examination we ascertained that the 



80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

statute of the United States contained a peculiar provision, 
not known to the practice in our state courts. It provided 
that when an injunction was granted in vacation by the judge 
of the district court of the United States, it should remain in 
force only until the close of the ensuing term of the circuit 
court ; that if the injunction was granted by one of the judges 
of the supreme court or a judge of the circuit court of the 
United States, it should remain in force until it was dissolved 
by the order of the court. We immediately opened telegraphic 
communication with General Howe, who was then attorney of 
the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and had in 
charge the defense of the case. He and Judge Grant, it seems, 
had been engaged in taking depositions and procuring evi- 
dence with reference to the question of obstruction of the navi- 
gation by the existence of these piers in the river, and both 
General Howe and Mr. Grant appeared to be acting upon the 
hypothesis that it was necessary for the defense to make a 
motion and showing for the dissolution of the injunction. We 
called the attention of General Howe to the provisions of the 
United States statute, and as we were well acquainted with the 
peculiarities of Judge Grant we advised that if we did nothing 
upon the part of defense at the ensuing term of court, it was 
probable that Grant would take no action in the matter and 
the injunction would stand dissolved at the close of the term 
by operation of law. On examination of the question General 
Howe agreed with our conclusions, and we then arranged that 
he take the train on Monday morning and come as far as 
Ames, Iowa, bringing with him all evidence, depositions, and 
papers that we might need in case there was to be any hear- 
ing before the court ; that General Howe should occupy a box- 
car at Ames and not subject himself to personal observation, 
whilst we would take charge of the interests of our client at 
Des Moines and do nothing save to let the law take its course, 
and we would advise General Howe by telegram if Judge 
Grant woke up and attempted to obtain any order of court 
continuing the injunction. Judge Grant was in attendance up- 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 81 

on the court, and several times inquired after General Howe, 
stating that he was expecting him daily. Day after day of the 
term passed and nothing was done. Finally, the business of 
the term being disposed of, Justice Miller, then justice of the 
supreme court of the United States and presiding, announced 
that if there was no further business before the court the term 
would be adjourned. Judge Grant addressed the court and 
stated that he had been waiting during the entire term expect- 
ing the appearance of General Howe ; that he understood that 
Messrs. Nourse and Withrow had been employed in behalf of 
the defendants, but no motion had been filed with reference to 
the injunction in the case against the bridge company or rail- 
road company, and he wished to know whether or not we in- 
tended to do anything. Mr. Withrow looked at me and placed 
upon me the responsibility of replying to judge Grant's re- 
marks. I said that it was true that Mr, Withrow and myself 
had been employed in the case, but only as local counsel and 
the only authority we had was to act under the instructions of 
the general counsel of the railroad company. General Howe; 
that we had no authority or direction to file any motion in the 
case, and I added very meekly that if any harm should come to 
our clients by reason of any neglect in the matter the respon- 
sibility would rest entirely with General Howe and not with 
my Brother Withrow and myself. Upon this Judge Grant 
announced that he had to go to Washington City upon pro- 
fessional business immediately upon adjournment of the court, 
and he would not consent that any motion would be heard in 
regard to the injunction matter in vacation. This closed the 
event and the court adjourned sine die. As Judge Miller 
passed out of the court house down the stairs. Judge Grant 
having previously left the room, Mr. Withrow could hardly 
contain himself and burst into uproarious laughter and at- 
tracted the attention of Judge Miller, who looked over his 
shoulder and remarked good-naturedly that he supposed Judge 
Grant did not understand us. As previously arranged, the 
mechanics engaged in the bridge construction had carefully 



'82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

prepared their timber and every bolt necessary for the span 
that should make up the drawbridge between these two piers. 
Judge Grant went his way to Washington, and upon his re- 
turn to Iowa three weeks afterwards he found the cars in oper- 
ation crossing the bridge. He immediately went to Judge 
Love, and making the necessary affidavits for contempt of 
court, obtained warrants for the arrest of the parties engaged 
in constructing the bridge. Without disclosing what our 
knowledge and view of the law was upon the subject, the 
parties at once gave bond and security for their appearance 
at the next term of court to answer the charge of contempt. 
When the next term of court convened. Justice Miller and 
Judge Love presiding, I made the necessary motion to dis- 
charge the defendants upon the ground that the injunction had 
been dissolved by operation of law immediately upon the ad- 
journment of the prior term of court, and there being no in- 
junction in force, the completion of the bridge did not consti- 
tute any contempt of court. The motion was sustained and the 
defendants discharged. 

Judge Howe and Judge Blodgett of Chicago were so de- 
lighted with the result, that they telegraphed to Chicago for a 
case of wines and inviting Judge Grant and Mr. Lincoln of 
Cincinnati, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, into our 
room, we spent a very merry evening together and all seemed 
to enjoy the evening save Judge Grant who could hardly for- 
give himself for his over-confidence which had resulted fatally 
to his clients. 

During the evening many excellent anecdotes were indulged 
in : among others was one by Judge Blodgett for the benefit of 
plaintiff's counsel. He said in the early history of the 
lawyers who were in the habit of traveling the circuit in Illi- 
nois, they had a gentleman come among them who would never 
admit that he had made a mistake. The attorneys were ac- 
customed to amuse themselves in the evening at the hotel, and 
among other amusements they had a game called ' * kicking the 
slipper," which consisted in inducing some green victim to 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 83 

put a slipper upon one foot and attempt to throw it into the 
air and kick the slipper with the other foot before it reached 
the floor. One evening they induced the over confident at- 
torney to undertake the experiment, with the result that he 
came flat upon the floor in the attempt to kick the slipper with 
the other foot. The other lawyers thereupon greeted him with 
a hearty round of laughter, but he sprang to his feet and said 
to them, ''Now, gentlemen, you needn't laugh, you needn't 
think you fooled me, for I want you to understand that I had 
no sooner struck the floor before I understood that it was a 
trick. ' ' Mr. Lincoln was a merry, good-natured man and en- 
joyed this anecdote at his expense very much, but Judge Grant 
hardly saw the application of Judge Blodgett's anecdote. 

At the next session of congress the railroad company ob- 
tained the passage of a law constituting the bridge a part of 
the mail route of the United States, and the court subse- 
quently dismissed the plaintiff's case. Thus we were success- 
ful in gaining our case by knowing when it was best to do noth- 
ing. The use of the bridge was invaluable to our clients, and 
the railroad company sent me a draft for two hundred dollars 
as compensation for the short speech I had made advising 
Judge Grant in the court that we had no instructions to do any- 
thing in the case, and the responsibility of our failure to do 
anything, if injurious to our client, would rest with General 
Howe, attorney in chief of the road. 

Whilst upon this question of management I will give you 
an account of another case of some importance that resulted 
in our complete success because we did something that we did 
not learn out of any of our law books. 

A certain young woman in the last stages of consumption 
had been turned out of the house of her near relatives, and 
compelled to take up her quarters in a second-class hotel in 
Des Moines during her last sickness. She had made a will in 
which she willed to the Catholic priest of the city. Father 
Brazil, a valuable tract of land for the use and benefit of the 
Catholic church. After her death her relatives, who had neg- 



84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

lected her shamefully during her sickness, brought suit to con- 
test the validity of this will upon the ground of undue influence 
on the part of Father Brazil, and mental incapacity on the part 
of the deceased. Judge Kavanaugh, a young bachelor then 
about thirty years of age and a member of the Catholic 
church, and since then judge of the court in Chicago, Illinois, 
had been employed by Father Brazil to defend the suit, and 
he subsequently came to me and retained me to assist him 
in the trial of the cause. During the sickness of the deceased 
she had employed a professional nurse, a young woman about 
thirty years of age. We were informed before the trial came 
on that the relatives who were contesting the will had been 
very courteous and kind and generous toward this young nurse 
woman, and during the holidays had made her valuable 
presents in consideration of her kindness to the deceased. At 
the opening of the term I noticed this young woman came into 
court, receiving the courtesies and attention of Judge Cole, 
who was counsel for the relatives that were contesting the will. 
She was rather a handsome woman, evidently intelligent and 
quick-witted, rather fond of admiration, and as she was to be 
the star witness for the other side of the case, I at once made 
up my mind that the whole case must turn upon her testimony. 
As the deceased had been frequently under the influence of 
opiates, administered by the physician for the purpose of re- 
lieving her suffering from time to time, it would be a very easy 
matter for a young woman gifted as this one was with facility 
of speech, to make the most of the incoherent utterances of the 
patient while under the influence of opiates. I foresaw that it 
would not do to subject this young woman to a severe cross- 
examination or say anything that implied that we doubted her 
honesty or veracity, and yet something must be done or we 
were sure to lose our case. I took my young bachelor friend, 
Judge Kavanaugh, to one side and told him wherein we were in 
danger, and as he was a member of the same church and was 
himself an Irishman, and had no doubt '^kissed the Blarney 
stone, ' ' it was absolutely necessary for him to cultivate the ao- 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 85 

quaintance of this witness, even to the very verge of propos- 
ing matrimony. I told him I could easily attend to the law of 
the case, the cross-examination of the witnesses, but this wit- 
ness was outside my jurisdiction. He readily agreed to under- 
take the part of the case that I assigned to him. He accom- 
panied the lady to and fro from her hotel at every adjourn- 
ment or sitting in the court, and she evidently was very much 
pleased with his attentions. I cautioned him not to talk too 
much about the case, but talk of other things that he would 
find probably more agreeable subjects of conversation to the 
witness and to himself. He perfoi-med Ms part so admirably 
that when Judge Cole called upon his star witness she proved 
a flat failure upon his hands. She said yes in answer to his 
questions, that when the deceased was under the influence of 
her opiates she was a little flighty, but that amounted to noth- 
ing, that when the influence of the opiate was gone she was 
perfectly rational and capable of understanding what she was 
doing at all other times. The result was that the jury found 
a verdict in our favor and the will was sustained. Judge 
Given, however, who was a member of the Presbyterian church, 
seemed to be disappointed at the result of the suit, and set 
aside the verdict and granted the parties a new trial. From 
this action of the court we took an appeal to the supreme 
court, and the supreme court reversed Judge Given 's decision, 
holding that there was no evidence that would have justified 
the jury in finding against the validity of the will, and they re- 
manded the cause with orders to the district court to render 
judgment in our favor. In conversation with Father Brazil 
after the case was over we were discussing the probable 
reasons that induced Judge Given to set aside the verdict of 
the jury. I suggested that perhaps he had been reading 
Eugene Sue's remarkable work called The Wandering Jew. 
I asked Father Brazil if he had ever read that book. He smiled 
pleasantly and said yes, and when I expressed my surprise 
that he should indulge in such literature, he remarked very 



86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

calmly that he always thought best to know what the world 
was saying about his church and people. 

I will give here also next an account of the most important 
criminal case I ever defended. A man by the name of Yard 
had shot and killed a party by the name of Jones. He claimed 
that he pointed a shotgun over the shoulder of his wife at the 
time Jones was approaching his wife about to commit an as- 
sault upon her for an illegal purpose, when he fired the gun 
and Jones fell dead as a result. Jones had come onto the 
premises where Yard and his wife resided, having in each 
hand a bucket with which he was supposed to be intending 
to go to a well for water. The buckets were found some dis- 
tance, probably twenty-five or thirty steps from the door, and 
the prosecution claimed that the buckets indicated the place 
at which the deceased was at the time he was fired upon and 
killed. Yard and his wife were both in jail at the time I was 
sent for, and the first thing I did was to enjoin upon them 
the necessity of absolute silence and refusal to answer any 
questions or to communicate with any party or parties who 
might possibly thereafter testify against them. Upon a pre- 
liminary trial before the justice I waived an examination of 
the case and had the defendants enter bail for their appear- 
ance at court. A man by the name of Smith, who was the 
owner of the gun with which the deceased was shot and who 
had loaned it to Yard only a few days before, was indicted 
with Yard and his wife as accessory to the crime. As the 
defense in this case would depend entirely upon the testimony 
of Yard and his wife I at once appreciated the absolute im- 
portance of having these parties tell the exact truth without 
equivocation or invention. My experience as a lawyer had 
taught me that persons deeply interested in the result of the 
trial, participating in a transaction such as the killing of 
another, are subject to such a state of nervous excitement 
that they frequently do not remember with any degree of ac- 
curacy the collateral facts and circumstances attending the 
more important events, and persons of ordinary intellect 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 87 

imagine it is important that they should be able to recollect 
and answer accurately every question that is made in regard 
to the collateral facts and circumstances attending the princi- 
pal event, and almost invariably they invent answers to such 
questions and pretend to know what really they do not know 
and do not recollect. The result is that they involve them- 
selves in contradictions and impossibilities, and let confusion 
destroy even the reliable and truthful parts of their evidence, 
and this was what I feared in this case. I was accused by 
some members of the bar and outsiders of training these 
parties as witnesses in their own behalf, and in one sense of 
the word it was true, but I only trained them to tell the truth, 
carefully eliminating from their story and had them eliminate 
everything that I was satisfied upon thorough examination 
was the result of their invention instead of their recollection. 
I first examined each of the parties separately and took down 
their statements carefully, and after comparing them tried to 
make up my mind as to what was absolutely true and as to 
what part of their story was invention. I then brought the 
parties together and discussed with them such parts of their 
story as I was satisfied had been supplied by them and had 
them admit and concede that they did not distinctly recollect 
the matter as stated. I repeated this process the third time. 
In some manners the man and his wife differed as to their 
recollections as to some things that had happened, and when I 
was satisfied that the difference was honest I made no effort 
to correct or to reconcile their statements, for my experience 
also taught me that absolute coincidence in eveiy particular 
of their statements would tend rather to discredit than to con- 
firm the truth of what they related. Another difiiculty in the 
trial of the case was the excitable temperament of Mrs. Yard, 
and what I feared most was that the prosecutor by severe 
cross-examination might make her angry and she would dis- 
play some temper and make some statement that would injure 
her case. When she was upon the stand under cross-examina- 
tion by Judge Given, who was then the prosecuting attorney, 



68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

I kept my eye upon the womEiii carefully. She was under ex- 
amination at least three hours, and only once did the prose- 
cutor succeed in exciting her so that she developed any pas- 
sion. He said to her in a very abrupt and preemptory man- 
ner, ''Now please turn and face that jury and tell them that 
you removed those buckets from the doorstep to the place 
where they were found. ' ' As she turned in a passion to face 
the jury, flushed with excitement, I was fortunate enough in 
catching her eye and fixing her attention a moment, when her 
passion subsided, and in a very calm lady-like way she said, 
"Gentlemen, I did remove those buckets from the doorstep 
and place them out in the yard just as I have heretofore re- 
lated. ' ' She said this in such a calm lady-like way that I was 
satisfied we had gained our case. I proved, of course, the bad 
character of the deceased and that he was a bad and dangerous 
man, and also the good character and reputation of the hus- 
band, which indeed had been and was unimpeachable up to 
that time. I examined in this case over seventy witnesses in 
behalf of the defense. The jury retired and were only out an 
hour or less, when they returned a verdict of not guilty. 

In the latter part of the administration of Cyrus Carpenter 
as Governor of the state, the State Treasurer was also treas- 
urer of the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College. 
The two offices had no legal connection, and it was merely an 
incident that the same man had been elected to both posi- 
tions — the one by the people of the state, and the other by the 
Board of Trustees of the college. The Trustees of the college 
in making their annual report to the legislature reported that 
their treasurer had proved a defaulter to the sum of about 
$27,000, and that they had, in order to secure the college, 
taken from him deeds for all his real estate including his 
homestead — all of the property save his homestead having, 
as they understood, been purchased by their treasurer with 
funds belonging to the college. About nine o 'clock one even- 
ing I received a visit from the deputy treasurer of state who 
informed me that the legislature, then in session, had passed 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 89 

a joint resolution, appointing a committee for the purpose of 
investigating the question as to what funds of the Agricul- 
tural College had been used, and also as to the proper admin- 
istration of the funds belonging to the state in the state 
treasury ; that the Treasurer of State and of the Agricultural 
College, being the same person, was about to be examined the 
next day by this committee of investigation, and upon advice 
of his friends he wished to employ counsel, and wished that I 
would act as his counsel in the matter, and particularly the 
deputy wished me that night to go with him and have a con- 
sultation with the treasurer. I accordingly accompanied him 
to the house of the party. I found him to be an old man 
probably between sixty and seventy years of age, white hair 
and beard, blue eyes, a fine stalwart frame, but laboring under 
intense excitement. I listened carefully to his story, in which 
the deputy frequently interpolated or supplemented the state- 
ments. The care with which both parties persisted that the 
funds were not state funds, but it was only the funds of the 
Agricultural College that had been wrongfully used or appro- 
priated, made me fear that neither the principal nor his deputy 
were telling me all that they knew. I felt as Shakespeare 
says in one of his plays, ''Methinks the person doth protest 
too much." We were standing in front of the fireplace and 
the light of the fire threw a peculiarly bright light upon the 
countenance of the treasurer, and the deputy remarked, ' ' Now 
you understand these funds were in the hands of the treasurer 
of the Agricultural College, and that he did not use the state 
funds. If he was defaulter as Treasurer of State he could be 
punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary, but if he was 
only defaulter as treasurer of the Agricultural College that 
would be a different affair. Is it not so?" The State Treas- 
urer was eyeing me very earnestly and watching carefully for 
my answer to the deputy's question. My answer was that I 
was not prepared to say that that was true, and the State 
Treasurer turned still paler and more nervous because my 
answer was not satisfactory. My conference lasted until after 



90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

midnight. I returned home feeling very anxious for the old 
man, but still satisfied in my own mind that I had not heard 
the entire truth. The next day the committee of investigation, 
consisting of members of the house and senate, convened, and 
I was present when the State Treasurer was examined by 
them. The story was told very much as it was told to me the 
night before, some questions of a general nature were asked, 
but nobody seemed to understand the importance of knowing 
when and what particular fund had come into the hands of the 
treasurer as custodian of the funds of the college, or when or 
what particular amounts had been used or confiscated by him. 
The committee adjourned until next morning. That afternoon 
the house of representatives had passed a joint resolution re- 
questing the Attorney General to give an opinion as to whether 
or not a defalcation by the treasurer of the Agricultural Col- 
lege funds constituted a crime, and also instructed him that in 
case it constituted an offense he should at once commence a 
prosecution against the party in question. Fortunately, this 
action of the house of representatives offered me a good excuse 
or pretext at least, to have the treasurer refuse to answer any 
further questions by the investigating committee, and we ac- 
cordingly withdrew him from the witness stand. Within the 
next day or two the deputy came to me and showed me a lot of 
memoranda made on slips of paper in his handwriting, con- 
taining certain figures, the aggregate of which amounted to 
the sum for which it was claimed the treasurer of the Agri- 
cultural College funds was in default. The deputy advised 
me that these slips had been kept in the state treasury vault 
and had been counted as cash items from time to time. Within 
a few days after that I had an interview with Dr. Welch, the 
president of the Agricultural College, and he stated to me that 
he was not satisfied that the funds that had been used by the 
treasurer were Agricultural College funds at all, and that the 
loss was saddled onto the college very much to the embarrass- 
ment of that institution, as they now had to wait for their 
money until such time as the property which had been turned 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 91 

over to the trustees could be turned into cash. He said he had a 
letter in his possession written by the deputy stating that the 
treasurer was away from home at that date and that he had not 
drawn the $30,000 theretofore appropriated by the legislature 
for the benefit of the college, but that the treasurer would re- 
turn in a short time and that he would advise the president on 
his return. At my request the president furnished me this let- 
ter and its date, and I found upon comparing it with the date 
of the warrant drawn in favor of the treasurer of the Agricul- 
tural College for the $30,000 and the cancellation of that war- 
rant ; that is, when it was marked paid, that there was a won- 
derful correspondence between the date of the letter and the 
date when the warrant was marked paid. The deputy, at my 
request, had given me these slips of paper containing this 
memoranda and I had carefully locked them away in my iron 
safe, thinking that possibly they might be of future use. At 
the next term of the district court of Polk county the grand jury 
found two indictments against the State Treasurer, one as 
defaulter to the state of Iowa as Treasurer of State, and the 
other as defaulter to the State Agricultural College, but ex- 
amining the minutes of the grand jury, I found that there was 
no evidence whatever before the grand jury that the State 
Treasurer had used any state funds at any time for any pur- 
pose, and the indictment of him as such a defaulter was not 
justified by any testimony taken by the grand jury. I im- 
mediately suspected that there was a secret hand at work 
intending that this old man should be convicted, if not of one 
ofifense, then of the other. Upon investigation I found that 
there had been some informality and illegality in drawing and 
impaneling the grand jury that found these indictments. On 
proper motion in court I had both indictments quashed and the 
matter continued for the action of the grand jury at the suc- 
ceeding terai of court. At the next term of court a new grand 
jury was impaneled, the foreman of which was a personal 
friend of the treasurer and a very honorable gentleman. He 
took occasion to suggest to me that it was very painful to him 



92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

to have to find indictments against my client, the treasurer, but 
that he should certainly perform his duty in that respect. I 
said to him that that was all right, but it was not right for a 
grand jury to find an indictment against any man without 
some evidence before it, tending to show he was guilty of the 
particular crime for which they found their indictment, and 
told him that the former grand jury had indicted my client 
for defalcation as Treasurer of State without a particle of evi- 
dence, save and except that as treasurer of the Agricultural 
College board he had made default as to that fund. The result 
was that this grand jury brought in an indictment only against 
my client as defaulter as treasurer of the Agricultural College, 
and for unlawfully using and converting to his own use the 
funds of that institution. The case was continued from term to 
term for several years, and in the meantime the property that 
had been turned over to the trustees had been converted into 
money, and the loss of the State Agricultural College had been 
made entirely good. Still the indictment remained against my 
client and had to be tried and disposed of. The old man had 
given up his house and his home and there was much sympathy 
existing in the community for him, and a general impression 
got abroad that he was the victim of others who had unloaded 
some very unprofitable property upon him and induced him to 
invest in it with the expectation that it could be re-sold to ad- 
vantage and the money refunded before it should be called 
for. Whether this was true or not and who the parties were 
that had induced the old gentleman to betray his trust, I do 
not know and have never tried to ascertain. The time came 
finally that the man was to be put upon his trial. He came 
into my office the day before the case was to be called for trial, 
looking pale and haggard, told me he had bid his wife good- 
bye and his boys and that he was prepared for the worst, that 
he supposed there was no hope for him, that he could endure 
it but it was hard on the family at home. I invited him into 
my private room and seating him at the opposite side of my 
table I said to him that for the sake of his wife and children I 



SOME IMPORTANT LAW SUITS 93 

had made up my mind that he should be acquitted. He looked 
at me incredulously and asked what I meant, and how it was 
possible for him to escape conviction. He said he had already 
confessed his fault and they had his confession all taken down 
in writing before the investigating committee. I stepped to 
my safe and took out the memoranda that I had obtained from 
his deputy and laid them down before him. Looking him fully 
in the face, I said, "Tell, me what those papers mean?" He 
asked me where I got them, and said he supposed they had been 
destroyed long ago. I told him no, that I carefully preserved 
them because it might be, as I thought, for his interest at some 
time or other to tell the truth, that there had been enough lies 
told about the business, and now probably the truth might 
save him. He asked what I meant. I said to him, "Here is 
a memoranda of the amounts that you took out of the safe 
that belonged to the state of Iowa. They never were in your 
hands as treasurer of the Agricultural College and you know 
it and you have known it all the time. You thought I was 
deceived, but I was not. I have known the truth and I hoped 
the time might come when the truth might benefit you more 
than the falsehood." I showed him the letter written by the 
deputy to President Welch. I had a memoranda of the date 
of the cancellation of the $30,000 warrant issued to him as 
treasurer of the Agricultural College. I looked him fully in 
the face and said, *^You never had that money in your hands, 
you never received it, you were not at home when that warrant 
was cancelled, and you know it." He sighed deeply and said, 
' ' That is true, but I told a different story and now what am I 
to do?" I said to him, "All you have to do is to tell the 
truth." The old man took courage and told me that I had 
guessed the truth and it was true that he had never used a dol 
lar of Agricultural College funds. Upon the trial I introduced 
in evidence the memoranda that had been kept in the safe of the 
State Treasurer, I introduced the warrant that had been issued 
by the auditor to the treasurer for Agricultural College funds, 
I proved by Dr. Welch the letter that had been written him 



94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

by the deputy and the date of the transaction, and I satisfied 
the jury beyond a doubt that my client was not guilty of the 
only crime for which he then stood indicted, to-wit, defaulter 
to the Agricultural College funds. Judge Leonard, then upon 
the district bench, had been former prosecutor in the dis- 
trict and did not listen with complaisance to any defense 
which tended to acquit an accused person, but after wrestling 
with him for quite awhile he finally admitted my defense and 
the testimony sustaining it, and instructed the jury flatly that 
the defendant was not on trial as defaulter to the funds of the 
state of Iowa, but as defaulter as treasurer of the Agricul- 
tural College funds, and they must find him guilty of the latter 
or they must acquit him, and the jury brought in a verdict of 
not guilty. This result created quite an excitement in the 
community and throughout the state, and I acquired some 
reputation as a criminal lawyer, but few persons understood 
the real nature of the defense that was made or how it was 
that the defendant was acquitted in the case, and attributed it 
to some extraordinary ability upon my part, whereas in truth 
and in fact I only gained my case by insisting upon my client 
telling and proving that which was true and abandoning a 
falsehood that I suspected then and have ever since believed 
was invented for him in order that other persons should not 
be suspected of any guilty knowledge of what had really oc- 
curred. My client returned to his home, to his wife and child- 
ren, at least free from a record of conviction for a felony. 



CHAPTER VI 

Visits Virginia Relatives 

Soon after the close of the Civil War I went to Washing- 
ton, D. C, for the purpose of arguing a case then pending in 
the supreme court of the United States. The court made an 
order advancing some important cases in which I think the 
government was interested, and this necessarily delayed the 
hearing of the cause in which I was engaged and left on my 
hands a week or more of leisure. I determined to improve 
the opportunity by going to Harper's Feriy and to Shepherds- 
town, West Virginia, for the purpose of finding and visiting 
some of my mother's relatives. I had an uncle, Charles 
Cameron, who had lived at Harper's Ferry when we left Mary- 
land in 1841. I took the train to Harper's Ferry, and upon 
my arrival there ascertained from the hotel clerk that my 
uncle Charles had died a short time before the Civil War and 
that his family had removed to Washington. I asked the clerk 
if he could point out to me some old resident of the place from 
whom I could obtain information. Whilst talking with him 
a man entered the office to whom he recommended me as a per- 
son that could tell me all about Harper's Ferry before the war. 
From this gentleman I learned that my uncle, John Cameron, 
was living with a married daughter several miles over on the 
Maryland side, just under Maryland Heights. I walked out 
to the place and had a most delightful visit with him and his 
daughter, and son-in-law and family. My uncle was a tall, 
splendidly framed man, a fine specimen of the old Virginia 
gentleman, over six feet in height, with his faculties unim- 
pared, a fine physique, and was then ninety-three years of age. 
He went with me the next day over to Shepherdstown, West 
Virginia, where we found still living and in fine health my 



96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

uncle, Daniel Cameron, and wife, their daughter, their grand- 
daughter, and their great-granddaughter, all living under the 
same roof. When Sunday came I went with my cousin to 
church and she took me to the Methodist Church South. At 
dinner that day I asked my uncle John if he had been to 
church. He said, "Certainly, sir." I asked him what church 
he attended. He answered, "The Methodist church." I 
turned to my cousin Susan and asked her if we had been to the 
Methodist church. She said, "Yes, the Methodist Church 
South. ' ' I said to my uncle, ' ' Then you were at the Metho- 
dist Church North?" "I attended, sir, the Methodist church 
of the United States of America." My cousin stepped upon 
my toes about this time under the table, from which I took the 
hint that the question of church north and the Methodist 
church was rather a delicate subject to discuss in the family. 
I was pleased to find that my relatives had all been true to the 
cause of the United States and were earnest Union people, 
except the sons-in-law, who, being young men, were compelled 
to go into the rebel anny. 

I visited some of the old places where my father had form- 
erly resided and where he had taught school, and I also visited 
the grave of my mother and grandmother Cameron in the vil- 
lage churchyard adjacent to the old brick building where I had 
attended Sunday school when a child. I had arranged with a 
gentleman who had married my cousin, Ann Cameron, to go 
with him the next day by way of Sharpsburg, over to Boones- 
boro, Maryland, but that evening I received a telegram from 
the clerk of the supreme court advising me that my case would 
probably be called Monday or Tuesday, and I hastened back 
to Washington. After disposing of my business in Washing- 
ton I made a visit to my brothers at Rushville, Ohio. Whilst 
here we received news of the nomination of General George B. 
McClelland as democratic candidate for the presidency in op- 
position to Mr. Lincoln, who had been nominated for his second 
term. An old acquaintance, Charles Wiseman, who was post- 
master at Lancaster, came to see me at Rushville and told me 



VISITS VIRGINIA RELATIVES 97 

they had posted me for a political speech that night, and he 
compelled me to go with him and fill the appointment. I found 
in Lancaster many old friends and acquaintances, boys who 
had been with me at school, and they gave me a hearty greet- 
ing. The old court house was filled to overflowing that night 
and I dispensed to them for over two hours the gospel of true 
Republicanism and loyalty to the country. We had a very en- 
thusiastic meeting, and my old friend, John D. Martin, es- 
pecially gave me a very hearty commendation. 

Before my return home I also visited Millersburg, Ken- 
tucky, to see my sister Susan and her family. Her husband, 
William Vimont, had suffered some during the war. His 
negro cook and her grown boy had been emancipated by their 
own will, the fugitive slave law being then practically in- 
operative. Morgan, in his raid through the country, had 
also stolen Vimont 's fine horse, which served somewhat as an 
antidote for the wrong that he felt had been visited upon him 
by the Union people. In passing over from his house to the 
village of Millersburg two incidents occurred which served to 
illustrate the state of affairs at that time in Kentucky. Upon 
reaching the turnpike near Mr. Vimont 's house we met one of 
his uncles riding in a buggy, just coming out of the gate which 
led to his residence, and he informed us with much feeling and 
passion that when he woke up that morning he discovered 
that there was not a nigger on his place, that he had no 
nigger at home to cook his breakfast for him, and that he 
had to *' hitch up his own horse, sah." This last item ap- 
peared to be the culmination of his grief. A few hundred 
yards further we passed a blacksmith shop, and upon the 
large door that constituted the entrance to the shop we 
found in red chalk the image of a man drawn, and the door 
within the lines of this image was full of bullet holes. Mr. 
Vimont informed me that the blacksmith, who was a violent 
secessionist, had been accustomed to amuse himself by draw- 
ing upon the door of the shop the outline of a person, calling 
it Lincoln, and then standing a short distance away, revolver 



98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

in hand, gratifying his rebel heart by filling the image full of 
bullet holes. 

It was during this visit to my brother-in-law that I urged 
upon him the propriety of selling his little farm and pur- 
chasing land in some western state and removing his family 
thither, which he finally did a few years later, when he re- 
moved to Tuscola, Illinois. 

I attended religious services in the village on the Sabbath, 
and was much interested in hearing a sermon from the text, 
*'Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man 
soweth that shall he also reap. ' ' The sermon that the minister 
preached was by no means the same as my thoughts framed 
from this text when I thought of the desolation that I had wit- 
nessed through this state, and the effects of the dark shadow 
that was just then lifting from one of the fairest lands that a 
benevolent Creator had ever prepared for a people, but which 
the stupidity and cupidity of man had cursed with human 
slavery. The preacher appeared to be perfectly blind as to 
the crop that his audience had reaped from the fearful sow- 
ing of their fathers, or dared not mention even had he thought 
of it. 



CHAPTER VII 

Pleasure Trip to Colorado 

In the summer of 1872 I joined a party of friends for the 
purpose of visiting Colorado. The party consisted of Judge 
Byron Rice, Doctor Ward, Alexander Talbott, Mr. Weaver, a 
druggist, and Monroe, a clothing merchant, and myself. We 
went by rail to Denver. We took with us a tent cloth, some 
blankets, buffalo robes, and bedding. At Denver we pur- 
chased a three-seated spring wagon and a pair of good mules. 
We also hired a teamster with another pair of mules and 
wagon, and bought a camping outfit, cooking utensils, and 
provisions. From Denver we went south to Colorado Springs. 
Our first camp south of Denver was at a place called Hay- 
stack Ranch, so called because there had never been a hay- 
stack on the ranch, but three immense boulders bore a striking 
resemblance to three haystacks, in the vicinity of which a set- 
tler had erected his buildings. A small mountain stream sup- 
plied him with the facilities of irrigating Ms land. He had 
built a fine large milk house, paved with flagstones and so 
arranged that he could turn the mountain stream of ice cold 
water on the floor of the building and thus regulate its tem- 
perature. He also had built an overshot water wheel with a 
small trough or flume and through this trough he turned the 
water onto his wheel from time to time as he wished it, and 
utilized its power to churn his butter. He milked about 
thirty cows, which he told us were fed entirely upon the buf- 
falo grass in the valley near by among the foothills, and that 
he sent his butter twice a week to the city of Denver. The 
man was evidently living an easy, pleasant life, and getting 
rich without any severe toil or drudgery. The town of Colo- 
rado Springs was then a single street with a few straggling 



100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

houses. Within a few miles of it we found the newly laid 
out city of Manitou. The surveyors were still at work sur- 
veying the streets. One large hotel was in course of erection 
and the valley up Cheyenne canyon contained about two hun- 
dred tents filled with invalids and health seekers. In this 
canyon could be found mineral waters of any temperature and 
almost any ingredients; principally iron, sulphur, lime, and 
soda. On a beautiful plateau of ground near where the hotel 
was being erected we pitched our tent and made our camp for 
several days. We finally concluded to make the ascent of 
Pike's Peak. Besides the two mules that we had bought, we 
hired some ponies accustomed to the trail, except that Mr. 
Monroe, one of our party, declared that he was able to walk, 
and refused to be provided with other transportation. We 
proposed to go up the mountain to the timber line the first 
day, and stay all night, and the next morning attempt to 
reach the summit by sunrise, for the purpose of enjoying what 
we were assured would be a most magnificent view of the 
country. Judge Rice and myself were a little late in pro- 
curing our ponies, and the other four of the party started in 
advance of us, Monroe on foot. '^ Halfway," as it was called, 
up the mountain, we stopped for rest and refreshment at a 
little log shanty erected by two enterprising young men, who 
there supplied luncheon and sleeping accommodations to the 
traveling public. The trail at that time was barely visible to 
the naked eye, and the climbing was difficult and somewhat 
dangerous even with our trained animals. Several hundred 
yards before we reached the timber line, so-called, we found 
Monroe lying in the path and apparently almost lifeless. The 
rare mountain air had scarcely left him oxygen enough to 
preserve life, and he had succumbed to the inevitable. We 
found near the timber line a shelving rock or rather a large 
cavity in the rock, where we took up our quarters for the night. 
Carrying Monroe to this place and wrapping him in blankets, 
we infused life into him by administering several doses of 
brandy, of which Judge Eice fortunately had a small flask. 



PLEASURE TRIP TO COLORADO 101 

A large pine tree had fallen across the outer edge of this rock 
against which we could place our feet to prevent slipping 
over its edge, and here we all tried to sleep. A fearful thun- 
der storm came up in the night, but fortunately the storm was 
below us. It was indeed a grand sight to see the forked 
lightnings darting through the clouds below us, without any 
apprehension of their finding our retreat. Our sleep, how- 
ever, was very indifferent. We had been in the territory 
only about ten days and our breathing apparatus had not 
adjusted itself to the necessities of a life in these altitudes. 
We fairly gasped for breath. In the morning when we awoke 
we found that we could take our ponies no farther on the 
trail, for there was none visible to the eye. The remainder 
of the journey to the top of the peak was necessarily a climb- 
ing over huge rocks scattered here and there without refer- 
ence to the convenience of adventurers. We could walk or 
rather climb about one hundred feet between rests and then 
fall down under the shadow of a great rock to recuperate 
enough strength for a venture of perhaps a hundred feet more. 
After climbing about four or five hundred feet or more in this 
manner we each began to feel a roaring in the ears and a 
nausea of the stomach, and at last had the discretion to call 
council in which we unanimously concluded with old Falstaff, 
one of Shakespeare's heroes, that the better part of valor was 
discretion, and we concluded to return to the valley below and 
forego the magnificence of a sunrise view from the top of 
Pike's Peak. When we got back upon our way as far as the 
timber line where we had hitched our ponies, I found my pony 
had taken "French leave" and gone down on the trail without 
waiting for my valuable company. I was doubtful at first 
whether I should be able to walk to camp, which was then over 
eight miles from the place of our night's adventure, but I had 
not proceeded down the mountain a mile before my strength 
returned to me and my lungs filled with sufficient oxygen to 
restore my vigor. We all got back to camp safely, even in- 
cluding the dilapidated Monroe, and the consensus of opinion 



102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

was that we were glad we went up Pike's Peak, but were more 
satisfied with the reflection that we did not have to go again. 
After another day's rest we took to the road with our mule 
teams and wagons, passing over a beautiful mountain road up 
Cheyenne canyon. Every few hundred yards we passed some 
beautiful cascade or water fall, formed by the dashing waters 
of some mountain stream supplied from the eternal snows that 
crowned the mountain peaks around us. Our road lay through 
the so-called South Park. On the high table lands before we 
reached this park we passed through a forest of petrified 
wood. At one cabin, occupied by a gentleman who kept a 
small hotel, we found the foundation of his house made of this 
petrified timber, and his chimney and fireplace of the same 
material. We gathered a few specimens that we afterwards 
brought home with us. In South Park we passed what was 
called the salt works. Here some English capitalist had built 
an immense plant for manufacturing salt. A natural spring 
that threw a constant stream of salt water, probably ten or 
twelve inches in diameter, supplied the water from which the 
salt was to be made. Large and commodious buildings with 
evaporating apparatus had been erected. An expenditure of 
probably fifty or one hundred thousand dollars had been made. 
There was only one difficulty about this Utopian enterprise 
and that was that the salt had to be manufactured so far from 
civilization that it cost more to transport it than it would be 
worth when it reached the market, hence the enterprise had 
been an ignominious failure and had been abandoned. 

Leaving this point we passed through the South Pass of the 
Eockies and on to the headwaters of the Arkansas river. We 
went up this river to the town of Granite, that had been a 
thriving mining village when placer mining in these parts was 
profitable ; thence we went to Twin Lakes, two small beautiful 
lakes of water among the mountains, where we camped and 
supplied ourselves with mountain trout. On the way we fre- 
quently shot mountain grouse. With our breakfast bacon and 
most excellent flour and potatoes, and our own improvised 



PLEASURE TRIP TO COLORADO 103 

cooking and our excellent appetites, we all fared sumptuously 
every day. We returned via another route, passing through 
Fairplay, Eetuming to Denver we sold our team and wagon 
for just its original cost, and paid our teamster with his out- 
fit four dollars a day. We had kept an accurate account of our 
expenditures and found that $1.50 a day for each of us had 
paid all of our expenses, including our transportation, for our 
three weeks' trip. We made a trip then by rail and stage line, 
going first over to Idaho Springs, visiting that beautiful little 
valley, and some of our party going as far as Georgetown. 
Returning to Denver, we all came home by rail well satisfied 
with our trip, but when we struck the blue grass regions of 
Iowa and its fields of ripening corn, with the memories of the 
homes that we were nearing our hearts were made glad that we 
lived in a land of civilization and plenty. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Centenniai. Address 

In the year 1876 the patriotic citizens of the state of Penn- 
sylvania, and especially of the old city of Philadelphia, had 
conceived the idea of a world's fair to commemorate the great 
event of the world ; to-wit, the declaration of the independence 
of the American colonies from the mother country. In plan- 
ning this great exhibition the managers had invited the gov- 
ernors of the several states of the Union to appoint, each, one 
of their citizens to deliver an address in behalf of their state, 
giving something of its history and settlement, its resources 
and possibilities. In pursuance of this plan Governor Samuel 
J. Kirkwood of Iowa did me the honor to appoint me to make 
the address in behalf of Iowa. I prepared such an address 
with considerable care, and delivered the same upon the expo- 
sition grounds on the 7th day of September, 1876. My cousin, 
Henry Clay Cameron, who was then professor of Greek at 
Princeton University, did me the honor to visit me at Phila- 
delphia at this time and took luncheon with my wife and my- 
self upon the exposition grounds ; also Samuel F. Miller, jus- 
tice of the supreme court of the United States came from 
Washington and was present on that occasion, and many 
other distinguished men. Among other gentlemen present were 
official representatives of a number of the governments and 
nations of Europe. The legislature of Iowa printed at the 
state expense some twenty thousand copies of this address, 
that were thereafter distributed among the people of the 
state. I have sent at their request to a number of the libraries 
in the different states printed copies of this address, and now 
the supply has been about exhausted and the document is about 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 105 

out of print, and I think I should give here a short synopsis 
of it. 

The following is the introductory matter, stating some- 
thing of the discovery of the territory that now constitutes 
our state : 

Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen : On the 13th of May, 
A. D. 1673, James Marquette and Louis Joliet, under the direction 
of the French authorities of Canada, started from the Straits of Mack- 
inaw, in their frail bark canoes, with five boatmen, "to find out and 
explore the great river lying on the west of them, of which they had 
heard marvelous accounts from the Indians about Lake Michigan. ' ' 

From the southern extremity of Green bay they ascended the Fox 
river, and thence carried their boats and provisions across to the Wis- 
consin. Descending that stream, they reached the Mississippi on the 
17th of June, and entered its majestic current, "realizing a joy," 
wrote Marquette, ' ' that they could not express. ' ' Rapidly and easily 
they swept down to the solitudes below, and viewed on their journey 
the bold bluffs and beautiful meadows on the western bank of the 
stream, now revealed for the first time to the eyes of the white man. 
This was the discovery of Iowa. 

The address then proceeds to give a short account of the 
first settlements in Iowa at Keokuk, Burlington, Davenport, 
and Dubuque, and also the settlements afterwards made at 
Council Bluffs and Sioux City, and cites the various treaties 
made from time to time between the government of the United 
States and the Indians, extinguishing the Indian title. It also 
gives something of the topography of the country, and in re- 
gard to its resources and the natural fertility of the soil it 
contains the following : 

We have now on exhibition in the Centennial buildings 15,000 
pounds of Iowa soil, selected from forty-five different counties of our 
state. This exhibition shows a vertical section of the natural forma- 
tion of the earth to the depth of six feet from the surface. The 
selection has been made from five several groups of seven counties each. 
The counties have been classified according to their contiguity, or 
natural location, as the northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast, and 
central. These specimens of strata are exhibited just in the condition 



106 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

they existed in the earth. The strata, undisturbed, have been trans- 
ferred to glass tubes six inches in diameter and six feet in length. 
These tubes are encased in black walnut, and each labeled with the 
name of the county from which the strata have been taken. The 
object has been in good faith to show the world what Iowa really is, 
without exaggeration, and without room for cavil. Here is the forma- 
tion from nature's own laboratory. Behold, what hath God wrought! 

The address also particularly gives an account of our school 
system, our state university and agricultural college, our be- 
nevolent institutions for the unfortunate classes, also the ex- 
tent of our newspaper publications. It discusses to some ex- 
tent the questions arising out of the Civil War and the heroism 
of our troops. On this subject the address contains the fol- 
lowing : 

It is impossible, in the reasonable length to which this paper should 
be limited, to write even a summary of the battles in which Iowa sol- 
diers took part. The history of her troops would be substantially a 
history of the war in the south and west. To recount a portion of those 
battles and sieges would be to give a partial history to the neglect of 
others, equally deserving of honorable mention. A task alike impossible 
would be to give here the names of the heroes, living and dead, who 
distinguished themselves by their courage and valor. Our efficient 
Adjutant General has preserved in the archives of his department, the 
material from which this glorious history will one day be written, for 
the honor of the state and the inspiration of the generations that shall 
come after us. In the adjutant's department at Des Moines are pre- 
served the shot-riddled colors and standards of our regiments. Upon 
them, by special authority, were inscribed, from time to time during 
the war, the names of the battle fields upon which these regiments 
gained distinction. These names constitute the geographical nomencla- 
ture of two-thirds of the territory lately in rebellion. From the Des 
Moines river to the Gulf, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, in the 
mountains of West Virginia, and in the Valley of the Shenandoah, the 
Iowa soldier made his presence known and felt, and maintained the 
honor of the state and the cause of the nation. They were with Lyon 
at Wilson's Creek, with Tuttle at Donelson. They fought with Siegel 
and with Curtis at Pea Ridge; with Crocker at Champion Hills; with 
Reid at Shiloh. They were with Grant at the surrender of Vicksburg. 



CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 107 

They fought above the clouds with Hooker at Lookout Mountain. 
They were with Sherman in his march to the sea, and were ready for 
battle when Johnston surrendered. They were with Sheridan in the 
"Valley of the Shenandoah, and were in the veteran ranks of the na- 
tion's deliverers that stacked their arms in the national capital at the 
close of the war. 

The address concludes as follows : 

Iowa hails with joy this centennial of our nation's birth. She re- 
news her vows of devotion to our common country, and looks with hope 
to the future. The institution of slavery, that once rested as a shadow 
upon the land, that was fast producing a diverse civilization dangerous 
to our unity and nationality, has been forever abolished. 

This centennial exhibition of our national greatness and material 
progress must re-awaken in the mind and heart of every American 
emotions of profound love for his country, and of patriotic pride in 
her success. Surely no American would consent that such a civili- 
zation as is evidenced here should perish in the throes of civil war. If 
there be anything in the history of Iowa and its wonderful development 
to excite a just pride, the other, and especially the older states of the 
Union may justly claim to share in it. Such as we are, the emigration 
from the other states made us. Our free soil, free labor, free schools, 
free speech, free press, free worship, free men and free women, were 
their free gift and contribution. Iowa is the thirty -year old child of the 
republic that celebrates the first centennial of its birth. Our state is 
simply the legitimate offspring of a civilization that has found its 
highest expression in building up sovereign states. Iowa was not a 
colony planted by the oppressions of the parent government, and that 
threw off her allegiance as soon as she gained strength to assert her 
independence ; but she was the outgrowth of the natural vitality and 
enterprise of the nation, begotten in obedience to the divine command to 
multiply and replenish — born a sovereign by the will and desire of 
the parent, and baptized at the font of liberty as a voluntary consecra- 
tion of her political life. Not a sovereign in that absolute sense that 
would make the federal government an impossibility, but sovereign 
within her sphere and over the objects and purposes of her jurisdiction, 
with such further limitations only upon her powers as render an abuse 
of them impossible, to the end that the personal liberty and private 
rights of the citizen should be more secure. 



108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

This wonderful exhibition of mechanical skill, of cunning work- 
manship, and of the fruits of the earth, is but the evidence of the exist- 
ence and character of the people that have produced them. The great 
ultimate fact that America would demonstrate is the existence of a 
people capable of attaining and preser^dng a superior civilization, with 
a government self-imposed, self-administered, and self-perpetuated. 
In this, her centennial year, America can exhibit nothing to the world 
of mankind more wonderful or more glorious than her new states — 
young empires, bom of her own enterprise, and tutored at her own 
political hearthstone. Well may she say to the monarchies of the old 
world, who look for evidences of her regal grandeur and state, ' ' Behold, 
these are my jewels." And may she never blush to add: "This one 
in the center of the diadem is called IOWA. ' ' 



CHAPTER IX 

Temperance and Prohibition 

In giving a further account of the activities of subsequent 
years it will be almost impossible to preserve anything like a 
chronological order of events, and it will be necessary to take 
up certain subjects or topics that employed much of my time 
and energies, and probably as important as any other part of 
my life was my connection with the subject of temperance and 
prohibition. 

The code of Iowa enacted in 1850 took effect July 1, 1851. 
Under the head of ''Intoxicating Liquors" it enacted as fol- 
lows : * ' The people of Iowa will hereafter take no part in the 
profits of the sale of intoxicating liquors." It then provided 
that the establishment of any place for the sale of intoxicating 
liquors to be drank on or about the premises should constitute 
a public nuisance, and enacted penalties against the sale of 
intoxicating liquors to be drank on or about the premises, and 
pro\dded for the abatement of such nuisances and the punish- 
ment of all persons violating the provisions of this statute. 
This code was very excellent in the principle upon which the 
law was based ; to-wit, that ihe people and government ought 
not to be a party to or share the profits of the sale of that which 
was the cause of so much poverty and crime, and the statute 
aimed at the destruction of the places of resort where the habit 
of drinking such liquors was contracted and promoted ; but in 
its practical operation the law itself and its provisions were a 
failure. The words, ' ' To be drank on or about the premises, ' ' 
involved two uncertainties — first, as to the meaning of the 
words ' ' on or about, ' ' and secondly, as to the guilty knowledge 
or intent of the vendor of the liquors when he made his sale. 



110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

as to the manner and where the purchaser intended to drink. 
Courts and juries gave very different and very liberal inter- 
pretation in the application of this law to different cases, and 
many of our judges and justices were not well educated in the 
idea that the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage was 
really a crime against the community and against humanity. 
As a result of these uncertainties of the law, the people of the 
state in 1854 elected a legislature, the majority of the members 
of which were pledged to enact a statute of absolute prohibi- 
tion. Such a statute passed both branches of the general as- 
sembly, and was approved by Governor Grimes. The settle- 
ments in the larger towns along the Mississippi river and in 
several of the interior counties embraced very many GeiToans 
and other persons of foreign birth, accustomed to the use, not 
only of intoxicating liquors, but to places of resort where the 
same could be drank at their leisure and pleasure. The result 
of this foreign demand was a fatal amendment to the statute of 
1854-5 known as the ''Wine and Beer Clause," which per 
mitted the licensing and sale of beer and native wine made 
from the grapes or other fruits grown within the state. The 
practical result of this law was the establishment of the saloon 
in charge of keepers who paid no respect to the law and sold 
all kinds of intoxicating drinks under pretense of beer and 
native wine. 

During our Civil War the people of the state were so ab- 
sorbed in the progress of events that involved the existence 
of our nationality that they gave but little attention to local 
state and police legislation, but soon after the close of the war, 
the thought of the people was directed to the great curse of the 
licensed saloon and its effects upon the morals and habits of 
our people. In order that the policy of the state with refer- 
ence to this matter might not be subjected to the caprice of 
political party conventions and elections, the people demanded 
and sought to enact an amendment to the constitution of the 
state that should embrace to its fullest extent a provision pro- 
hibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage within 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION HI 

the state, including not only alcoholic liquors, but also malt 
liquors. In order to secure such a provision by way of amend- 
ment to the constituton it was necessary to secure the election 
of two successive general assemblies to pass upon such an 
amendment, and to secure a vote of the people endorsing and 
adopting the same at a subsequent election. The provisions of 
our constitution on the subject of amending the same were as 
follows : 

Any amendment or amendments to this constitution may be pro- 
posed in either house of the general assembly ; and if the same shall 
be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two 
houses, such proposed amendment shall be entered on their journals, 
with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and referred to the legislature 
to be chosen at the next general election, and shall be published, as 
provided by law, for three months previous to the time of making such 
choice; and if, in the general assembly so next chosen as aforesaid, 
such proposed amendment or amendments shall be agreed to by a ma- 
jority of all the members elected to each house, then it shall be the 
duty of the general assembly to submit such proposed amendment 
to the people in such manner, and at such time as the general assembly 
shall provide ; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amend- 
ment or amendments by a majority of the electors qualified to vote 
for members of the general assembly, voting thereon, such amendment 
or amendments shall become a part of the constitution of this state. 

In pursuance of the provisions of this constitution the 
eighteenth general assembly of the state of Iowa, to-wit, in the 
year 1880, adopted as an amendment to the constitution of the 
state the following : ' ' No person shall manufacture for sale, 
or sell, or keep for sale as a beverage, any intoxicating liquors 
whatever, including ale, wine and beer. The general assembly 
shall by law prescribe regiilations for the enforcement of the 
prohibition herein contained, and shall thereby provide suit- 
able penalties for the violation of the pro^dsions hereof." 
This amendment, by omission of the clerk of the house of rep- 
resentatives, was not entered in full upon the journals of that 
body. It was, however, embraced in a joint resolution of the 
two houses and fully identified by its title upon the journal of 



112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

the house and senate, and the vote adopting the same was 
duly recorded by yeas and nays as required by the constitu- 
tion. The publication of this action of the eighteenth general 
assembly was duly made in the newspapers prior to the elec- 
tion of the nineteenth general assembly, and at the session of 
that body another joint resolution was passed in both houses 
embracing the amendment and reciting the action of the 
eighteenth general assembly thereon, and this joint resolu- 
tion passed both houses, and the yeas and nays were fully re- 
corded, and proclamation was made by the Governor of the 
state, and the people of the state at a subsequent election held 
on June 27, 1882, after a vigorous canvass of the merits of the 
question, endorsed and adopted the amendment by nearly 
thirty thousand majority. 

On the 26th day of August, 1882, a pretended suit was 
brought in the district court of Scott county by a brewing 
establishment owned and operated by Koehler & Lange 
against a saloon keeper by the name of Hill, in the city of 
Davenport, upon an account for beer sold by the brewer to 
the saloon keeper, and the saloon keeper set up by way of 
defense that he bought the beer and it was sold to him for 
the purpose of being sold as a beverage and that the sale was 
unlawful and contrary to the provisions of the amendment to 
the constitution. That this suit was a mere conspiracy for 
the purpose of having the amendment to the constitution de- 
clared void there can be no question. The judge of the dis- 
trict court of Scott county was opposed to the amendment 
personally and politically, as were also the attorneys that con- 
ducted these proceedings. The principal answer of the saloon 
keeper was to set up the constitutional amendment and the 
brewer replied stating that the constitutional amendment was 
not legally adopted, especially because the amendment had not 
been spread upon the journals of the house of representatives 
of the eighteenth general assembly verbatim, but that it had 
only been embraced in a certain joint resolution of the two 
houses. The judgment of the district court was against the 



I 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 113 

brewer for the beer, and he took a pretended appeal there- 
from to the supreme court of the state. When the case 
reached the supreme court J. A. Harvey, Esq., who had been 
an active man in the general assembly in favor of the amend- 
ment, and who was also an avowed prohibitionist and friend 
of the amendment, was employed by the Women's Temperance 
Union of the state to appear in the case and argue the matter 
before the supreme court, involving the legality of the amend- 
ment. The Women's Temperance Union also employed Judge 
William E. Miller, an ex-judge of the supreme court of our 
state, who prepared and filed in the case a printed argument. 
I was at that time absorbed in my own private practice and 
had a case on trial in the district court, and was unable to 
attend the session of the court at which the case was argued. 
I had been very active in the canvass pending the adoption of 
this amendment at the popular election, and had spent much 
time in making speeches before the people in its behalf. I had 
promised Mr. Harvey that if my other professional engage- 
ments would admit of it I would assist him in the oral argu- 
ment before the supreme court. To my great surprise, and 
to the surprise and consternation of the people of the state, 
the majority of the judges of the supreme court decided that 
the amendment had not been legally adopted, giving as their 
chief reason therefor the failure of the eighteenth general as- 
sembly to have spread upon the house journal a verbatim copy 
of the constitutional amendment at the time it was adopted by 
that house. As soon as this decision was made known I pre- 
pared and filed in the supreme court of the state a petition for 
a re-hearing of the case. This re-hearing was granted. The 
Governor of the state employed Senator James F. Wilson of 
Fairfield, and Hon. John F. Buncombe, of Fort Dodge, to ap- 
pear and make oral argument in behalf of the amendment. I 
also appeared in the case at my own request and upon my own 
motion and argued the case orally at Davenport on the final 
hearing. Two of the judges of the supreme court; Judges 
Seevers and Rothrock, were not friends of the amendment, and 



114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

I think, in sentiment, were opposed to it. Judge Day's action 
in the matter in agreeing with Messrs. Seevers and Rothrock 
was a surprise to his friends, but I have no doubt his decision 
was honestly made. I think this re-hearing might possibly 
have resulted in a favorable opinion from a majority of the 
court had it not been for the intemperate zeal of a portion of 
the public press, particularly the Des Moines Register edited 
by the Clarksons in which the majority opinion of the supreme 
court was denounced. The judges who constituted the ma- 
jority of the court could scarcely be expected to change their 
views and opinions under the pressure of the brutal attacks 
that were made upon them through the press. Judge Beck, the 
fourth judge of the court, had delivered a very able dissenting 
opinion sustaining the constitutional amendment. That the 
decision of the supreme court upon this question was radically 
wrong, I have never entertained the least doubt in my own 
mind. The supreme court in its majority opinion recognized 
the fact that the only proper and legal evidence of the final 
action of the legislative body in the enactment of its laws must 
be found in its enrolled bills, duly certified by the presiding 
officers of the senate and house of representatives respec- 
tively. The authorities were uniform, and no court had ever 
before undertaken to examine the journals of a legislative 
assembly for the purpose of contradicting and falsifying the 
duly certified action of the legislature by its presiding officer. 
Every bill that passes the general assembly of the state is duly 
enrolled by the clerk elected for that purpose by the house in 
which the bill originated. It is then supposed to be carefully 
examined by the committee on enrolled bills and reported in 
open session of the house, and is then presented by the clerk 
or secretary to the several presiding officers in open session 
for their signatures, and thence in the care of the proper 
committee on enrolled bills is presented to the Governor for 
his approval. To go behind this official action of the two 
branches of the legislature and undertake to examine and criti- 
cise the action of the clerk in recording or failing to record any 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 115 

part of its proceedings, by the courts of the state, is simply to 
destroy the independence of the law-making power, and is 
nothing more or less than usurpation on the part of a coordi- 
nate branch of the government. The constitution of Iowa in 
its provisions in regard to an amendment of that instrument 
selects, first, the two houses of the general assembly, secondly, 
the executive of the state, and thirdly, the people of the state, 
the source of all political power, and entrusts to them and 
them alone the power to amend its organic law. This amend- 
ment originated with and was carefully prepared by and ap- 
proved by both branches of the eighteenth general assembly, 
and subsequently by the nineteenth general assembly, there 
can be no question ; that it was then submitted to a vote of the 
people, voted and approved by the people by a large majority, 
was then proclaimed by the Governor of the state in his procla- 
mation as part of the organic law of the state, there was no 
question, and I do not hesitate to say, after years of thought 
and deliberation upon this matter, that the decision of the 
supreme court of the state in the case of Koehler & Lange 
against Hill was simply usurpation. During the pendency of 
this re-hearing and before the final arguments in the case Mr. 
Hill, the saloon-keeper of Davenport, attempted to defeat the 
re-hearing by asking the court to strike from the files the peti- 
tion for rehearing and denying the authority of the attorneys 
who had filed the same to act in his name. The Governor of 
the state, after the final disposition of the cause, appropriated 
$750 to the three principal counsel engaged in the re-hearing, 
and sent me one-third of the amount ; to-wit, $250 for my ser- 
vices in the matter. 

The constitutional amendment thus attempted to be ren- 
dered null and void by the opinion of the supreme court in the 
case of Koehler & Lange against Hill was really only an 
amendment to the constitution enjoining upon the legislature 
the duty of enacting a prohibitory liquor law, and forbidding 
the enactment of any statute authorizing the license and sale 
of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. The immediate effect 



116 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

of the decision of the supreme court was to arouse the people 
of the state to an assertion of their rights in regard to these 
matters ; consequently they elected a general assembly in the 
fall of 1883, a large majority of whose members were pledged 
to give the people, by legislative enactment, a law such as the 
constitutional amendment required, and in pursuance of that 
purpose the twentieth general assembly enacted the pro- 
hibitory law, chapter 143, page 146 of the laws of that session. 
This law was popularly known as the Clark law, taking its 
name from the fact that it was introduced into the senate by 
Senator Clark of Page county. He was not, however, the 
author of the law, and was only entitled to the credit of having 
introduced it as a member of the senate. 

Some time before these events there had been organized 
in the state of Iowa a temperance league, with its head- 
quarters at Des Moines. Mr. J. A. Harvey, before referred 
to, and myself, with Louis Todhunter of Indianola, had been 
appointed by the Temperance League a committee to draft a 
prohibitory law and secure its passage by the twentieth gen- 
eral assembly. Another effect of the decision of the supreme 
court in the Koehler & Lange case was the retirement of 
Judge Day from the supreme bench of the state, and the elec- 
tion of Judge Read of Council Bluffs in his stead. I was a 
delegate to the republican state convention from Polk county. 
I did not sympathize with the idea of the defeat for renomina- 
tion of a judge of the court on the simple ground that his de- 
cision or action as judge did not meet with the approval of 
the people, but I could not, with my ideas of right and justice, 
approve of the renomination of any judge of the court that 
had assumed the prerogative attempted to be exercised by the 
majority of judges in the Koehler & Lange case, and I cordially 
supported Judge Read for the nomination. I had assisted 
Mr. Harvey in framing the prohibitory law that was enacted 
by the twentieth general assembly, part of which was written 
by myself. I did not entirely agree with the committee, how- 
ever, in providing as that statute does that the prosecuting 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 117 

witness or party filing informations for a violation of the law 
should take to his personal use any part of the fines or penal- 
ties provided for in the statute. I disliked that feature of the 
law for the reason that I anticipated that bad men, for the 
sake of personal profit and gain, would bring the law into dis- 
repute. The State Temperance League undertook to pro- 
vide, to a greater or less extent, for the prosecution of offen- 
ders under this law of the twentieth general assembly. I was 
on the committee appointed by the League and was chairman 
of the committee that had advisory powers in regard to prose- 
cutions undertaken or promoted by the officers of the League, 
and as chairman of that committee I had occasion, a number 
of times, to defeat the purposes and plans of those who sought 
to use the authority of the League for some ulterior purpose. 
The most serious case of this kind that arose during my ad- 
ministration related to the effort of a certain whiskey trust to 
use the prohibitory law as a means of destroying an industry 
established in Des Moines by invitation of its business men 
just prior to the taking effect of this prohibitory law of 1884. 
One of the chief men in encouraging the establishment of the 
International Distillery in Des Moines, so-called, was J. S. 
Clarkson, editor-in-chief then of the Des Mones Register. 
This International Distillery was an alcohol manufactory, es- 
tablished by a man by the name of Kidd. Before he invested 
his money in the plant he had taken the precaution to con- 
sult with a number of prominent citizens and prohibitionists 
of the city of Des Mones, to know whether or not his enter- 
prise would at all be affected by the constitutional amendment 
or the statute that might be passed in pursuance thereof. 
Pending the action of the general assembly upon the consti- 
tutional amendment, the Des Moines Register had insisted 
upon some legislative interpretation of the meaning and effect 
of the proposed amendment upon the question of the manu- 
facture of alcohol within the state as an article of commerce, 
for the purpose of shipping the same to the markets abroad 
and not to be sold within the state. In pursuance of the sug- 



118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

gestion of the Des Moines Register, the state senate of Iowa 
in 1882 adopted the following explanatory resolution as to the 
meaning and intent of the amendment then pending, and there- 
after to be voted upon by the people, as follows : 

Whereas, doubts have been suggested as to the true intent and 
meaning of the joint resolution agreed to by the 18th general assembly, 
and by this general assembly, as proposing to amend the constitution 
of the state so as to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors as a beverage within this state; and 

Whereas, it is desirable that such doubts should be removed as far 
as practicable before said proposed amendment is voted upon by the 
people; therefore, 

Be it resolved by the senate, that said proposed amendment was 
and is designed and intended to prevent the manufacture within this 
state, for sale within this state, as a beverage, all intoxicating liquors, 
including ale, wine and beer, and to prohibit the selling of such liquors 
within this state for use as a beverage, and to prohibit the keeping of 
such liquors for sale as a beverage within this state ; and was not de- 
signed to prohibit the manufacture for sale, or keeping for sale, of such 
liquors for any or all other purposes. 

A short time before this resolution was passed a meeting 
of the board of trade of the city of Des Moines was held with 
reference to the same matter. It was attended by many of the 
most prominent prohibitionists of the city, and all concurred 
in the view of the amendment afterward taken by the senate. 
The sense of the meeting was expressed by a resolution re- 
ported by a committee, consisting of T. S. "Wright, J. S. Polk, 
and J. S. Clarkson, and adopted with but one dissenting vote. 
The resolution is as follows : 

Whereas, the agitation of the proposed amendment to the consti- 
tution of this state, prohibiting the manufacture of alcoholic liquors 
for sale, is creating doubt and uncertainty in the minds of capitalists 
proposing to invest a large amount of means in the manufacture of 
alcohol in this city; and 

Whereas, we are satisfied the great majority of the people of the 
state do not construe such amendment as prohibiting the manufacture 
of alcohol for exportation, but that it simply prohibits its manufacture 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 119 

for sale as a beverage in the state, a view in which the leading friends 
and the most of the supporters of the amendment concur ; and 

Whereas, we are sure the people of the state would vote down over- 
whelmingly any amendment absolutely prohibiting the manufacture 
of alcohol; therefore be it 

Resolved, that the Des Moines Board of Trade accept the interpre- 
tation of the leading friends and supporters of the amendment, that 
it intends only to prohibit the manufacture for sale of alcoholic liquors 
in the state as a beverage, pledges itself to tlie support and defense of 
capitalists investing in such manufacturing as against all doubts as to 
the real meaning of the amendment, and further, that we will lend 
our active influence toward securing such legislative expression as will 
put upon the amendment the construction that it will only prohibit 
the manufacture of such liquors for sale as a beverage in the state. 

This meeting of the board of trade, which was attended by 
many of the prominent prohibitionists of the city and of the 
state, I did not attend, though invited to be present. 

In pursuance of the encouragement thus given to Mr. Kidd, 
and prior to the taMng effect of the prohibitory law of 1884, 
Mr. Kidd expended several hundred thousand dollars in the 
building of his plant for the manufacture of alcohol at the city 
of Des Moines, Iowa, and continued such manufacture with- 
out interruption until certain prosecutions were commenced 
against him at the instance of the Western Export Associa- 
tion, a whisky trust organized by the distillers of the United 
States to prevent an excess of alcohol being manufactured, 
and by this means to regulate and keep up the price of the 
article. After the decision of the principal suit undertaken 
in this behalf, in which I. E. Pearson and a man by the name 
of Loughran were nominal plaintiffs and the International 
Distillery and Mr. Kidd were defendants, a decision adverse 
to the distillery was obtained and the defendants took an ap- 
peal to the supreme court of the state. Mr. Kidd and his at- 
torney called upon me and reminded me of the fact that our 
firm, consisting of B. F. Kauffman and myself, had given 
them a written opinion to the effect that the law of 1884 did 
not make it unlawful to manufacture alcohol in this state as an 



120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

article of merchandise, to be shipped and disposed of beyond 
the limits of the state, and Mr. Kidd appealed to me to know 
if I was willing to accept of a retainer to argue that question 
in the supreme court of the state on his appeal, suggesting that 
he thought it my duty to do so as a lawyer, and asked if I was 
afraid to perform my duty in that behalf. I told him that I 
was not afraid and accepted of the employment. 

As soon as this became known to the Des Moines Register, 
its editors commenced a series of abusive articles against me, 
containing misrepresentations and insinuations, and for some 
reasons best known to the editors of that paper and of which 
I am not advised, they became very active in trying to pro- 
mote the success of this prosecution against the distillery and 
to destroy the same. These articles of the State Register 
created, of course, quite an inquiry among the friends of pro- 
hibition in the state, and they wrote a number of letters to 
Mrs. A. E. McMurray, secretary of the State Temperance 
League, making inquiry in regard to the matter of my employ- 
ment. She accordingly wrote a letter to me upon the subject 
and I answered the same very fully, giving a history of the 
whole controversy, and particularly the motives of the men 
that were trying to destroy Kidd and his enterprise. Though 
the letter is somewhat in detail, yet, as it is a complete answer 
to all of the criticisms that have been made of my profes- 
sional conduct in this matter, I give it here in full : 

Des Moines, Iowa, March 19, 1887. 
Mrs. E. A. McMurray, Secretary of Iowa State Temperance Alliance : 

I have your communication of the 17th inst., and appreciating the 
motives that have prompted it, I take pleasure in responding to your 
inquiries. 

The case of I. E. Pearson and S, J. Loughran against John S. Kidd, 
now pending upon appeal in the supreme court of the state, and in 
which I have been retained for the defendant, involves only the ques- 
tion as to the right of the defendant to manufacture alcohol in this 
state, under the permit granted him by the board of supervisors of 
Polk county, for the purpose of export. There is no pretense that 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 121 

Mr. Kidd, since the taking effect of our present statute, has ever sold 
any intoxicating liquors, or alcohol, within the state of Iowa, for any 
purpose whatever. The only evidence offered to sustain the petition 
is contained in the official reports of Mr. Kidd to the auditor of the 
county, by which it appears that he has manufactured alcohol and 
shipped it out of the state. The article manufactured by Mr. Kidd 
and put upon the market is not itself a beverage, and is not and cannot 
be used as such in the form in which he has produced and sold it. The 
case was first tried in the circuit court of Polk county, before Judges 
Given and Henderson, upon an application for a preliminary in- 
junction. In December last those two judges delivered an opinion in 
the case, deciding that Mr. Kidd had not in any manner violated the 
prohibitory law, and they refused an injunction. At the present term 
of the district court Judge Conrad, our newly-elected district judge, 
put a different construction upon the law and held, that by the amend- 
ment made to the prohibitory law by the legislation of 1884 it was 
unlawful to manufacture alcohol in the state for export; and this is 
the sole question to be determined by the supreme court upon the 
appeal. This answers the first inquiry in your letter, as to what is in- 
volved in the case. 

Your next question is whether or not my employment in this case 
is consistent with my past record ; and whether or not it is calculated 
to impair my influence and usefulness for the cause of prohibition in 
the future. 

I was one of the committee appointed by the State Temperance 
Alliance to prepare a bill to be presented to the legislature for its con- 
sideration, in 1884, that should carry out the will of the people of Iowa, 
as expressed in the amendment to the constitution, which amendment 
the supreme court of the state had then decided was not operative, by 
reason of the failure of the eighteenth general assembly to properly 
enter the same upon their journals. 

As early as the 31st of May, 1881, I prepared and delivered before 
the Methodist state convention that was held in Des Moines at that 
date an address on the legal phase of the prohibitory amendment. 
This address was afterwards printed in pamphlet form by the Prohi- 
bitionist, and was circulated during the amendment campaign as a 
campaign document, and seemed to meet with the views of the friends 
of prohibition at that time. In that address I took occasion to discuss 
the meaning and scope of the proposed amendment, and in it occurs 



122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

the following passage, defining my \dew of the legislation that would 
be required by that amendment, if adopted. I quote : 

We have, in regard to spirituous liquors, laws upon our statute 
books designed to prohibit their manufacture or sale, except for medic- 
inal, mechanical, culinary and sacramental purposes. For these law- 
ful purposes certain persons are authorized to sell. They must obtain 
a permit, give bonds, keep books, etc., and are subject to the super- 
vision and control of the authorities. The manufacturer could be 
required to sell only to persons thus authorized to sell for lawful pur- 
poses; if sold within the state, otherwise than as permitted by the 
statute, the act could be punished by fine or confiscation. 

May 12, 1881, I attended a meeting of the State Bar Association 
of Iowa, the proceedings of which are reported in the Des Moines 
Register of May 13, 1881. That meeting discussed the meaning and 
interpretation of the proposed prohibitory amendment to the con- 
stitution. Mr. Cummins, an attorney of this city, offered a resolution 
at that meeting as follows : 

Resolved, That the proposed amendment prohibits the manufac- 
ture of intoxicating liquors within the state for sale as a beverage 
without the state. 

The Register's report says that "Judge Nourse arose and stated 
that Iowa had no control over the liquor after it left the state. ' ' 

From the above it will appear that my interpretation of the con- 
stitutional amendment and of the efforts that we were about to make 
at that time to control the manufacture of intoxicating liquors within 
this state, did not contemplate any interference with the manufac- 
ture of alcohol for the purpose of export. That this view was in entire 
harmony with the views and opinions of the great mass of the people 
then favoring legislation upon this subject, is conclusively shown by 
the following extracts taken from the Iowa State Register of the fol- 
lowing dates : 

The Amendment's Meaning 
{Iowa State Register, February 3, 1882) 

Nine-tenths of the mass of the supporters of the amendment that 
we know of hold the view that it is to deal with liquors only so far as 
forbidding their sale for use as a beverage in this state. So it is not 
a "Des Moines idea" at all, but the view of the great body of sup- 
porters of the amendment itself. 

The truth is, then, as shown by the records of the supporters of the 
submission of the amendment in the legislature, and by the testimony 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 123 

of nine-tenths of the supporters of it among the people who have pub- 
licly expressed themselves, that the amendment was not intended to 
prohibit manufactures for export. The State Bar Association at its 
last meeting discussed the meaning of it, and failed to agree upon it, 
opinion being about equally di^dded as to whether it means absolute 
and total prohibition or only as to manufacture and sale as a bever- 
age in this state. We do not doubt that the original friends of the 
amendment intended to have it go no further than to make it deal 
with liquor as a beverage in Iowa. Nor do we doubt that the great 
body of them hold to the view now that it is intended to go no further 
than that. They know that the state has no power to go beyond that, 
and they realize that to attempt to carry the amendment, with the in- 
terpretation of total prohibition or manufacture given to it, it would 
be defeated. 

For the people of Iowa will never consent, in our judgment, to 
prohibit the manufacture of their greatest staple into alcohol for ex- 
port. In that form Iowa corn can be sent into South America and to 
the ports of the Mediterranean Sea, while in its raw form it can only 
go there by taking from five to ten bushels to pay the freight on one. 
This alcohol trade must be supplied, and ^vill be supplied, and Iowa 
corn will inevitably supply a good deal of it, whether it is made up 
into alcohol for this purpose in Iowa, to the profit of the Iowa farmer, 
or whether it be shipped to Chicago and St. Louis, or elsewhere, at the 
loss of the Iowa farmer, and made into form there. 

"We do not ask that the amendment itself shall be tinkered with. 
But we do ask that the same majority which shall vote to submit it to 
the people shall put on record the true interpretation of its meaning. 
From this position we do not intend to be driven either by the ridicule 
of whisky rings or whisky papers, nor by the sneers of temperance 
papers, which have not yet examined into the question themselves, and 
would have every body else as stupid about it as they are themselves. 

The Amendment's Meaning 
{Iowa State Register, February 7, 1882) 
The truth is, and all who have watched the progress of this con- 
test know that it was never intended to make this amendment aim to 
do more than it was possible to do, namely, to exercise police power 
in its own st^te, and not aim to attempt to stop inter-state commerce, 
nor try and prohibit the use of liquor in other states. 

(Appended is a letter from Hon. L. S. Coffin, supporting the 
Register's view.) 

The Amendment's Meaning 

{Iowa State Register, February 21, 1882) 
We plainly told members of the convention before it met. in order 
that they might be warned in time, that thousands and thousands of 
voters were waiting for the true interpretation of the amendment be- 



124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

fore deciding as to their position toward it — The Register as a paper, 
among them. When they adjourned, evading and ignoring a ques- 
tion on which probably hung, and still hangs, the fate of the amend- 
ment at the polls, we held that the legislature should take some action 
Xg ascertain the real meaning of the amendment before ratifying it. 
This we held could be done by asking the attorney general, the lawyer 
and adviser of the state, to give his views as to its actual meaning. 

These stills, encouraged by the government laws and by the people 
of Iowa, have begun their manufacture in the state. If Iowa is ever 
to be anything of a manufacturing state, it can hope to be so mostly, 
and will be profited mostly by manufactures from its own staple crop. 
This can go into alcohol, and always be sold, and yet rarely if ever, be 
used as a beverage. For alcohol is used in thousands of mechanical 
ways. It is made into varnish by putting gums and resins with it. 
It is mixed with spirits of turpentine, and makes camphene and burn- 
ing fluids in endless quantities, used all over South America and 
Europe. It is made into cologne and other perfumed spirits by 
flavoring it with different kinds of oil, and all over Europe, when fuel 
is scarce, it is used in vast quantities for cooking and heating 
stoves. Millions and millions of gallons of it are used for other 
mechanical purposes. Very little of it in this form is ever used for 
a beverage. To say that Iowa com should be made into this form in 
Illinois, or in Cincinnati, or New York, or Liverpool, but not in Iowa, 
is to still leave it to be so converted, and with Iowa bearing the whole 
loss and reaping none of the gain. 

So we say, let us have the amendment's real meaning, so that it 
may be fully understood by the people, and voted up or down as it 
shall deserve to be. 

As a member of the committee appointed to prepare a bill for the 
action of the general assembly of 1884, I can say that there was at no 
time any thought by the majority of that committee of asking any 
legislation that would prohibit the manufacture of intoxicating liquors 
for medicinal and mechanical purposes or for export and sale beyond 
the jurisdiction of our laws. That committee was composed of lawyers 
who fully understood that any legislation that we could obtain must 
be based upon the police power of the state to regulate the sale of in- 
toxicating liquors within its jurisdiction. The Utopian idea that the 
legislature of Iowa could control the use to which intoxicating liquors, 
manufactured and sold as an article of commerce in the markets of the 
world, might be applied in another state, I do not think was at all 
entertained by the members of that committee, save perhaps one of 
them, Mr. Todhunter. The bill that was prepared by the committee 
and presented to the legislature was not enacted into a law in the 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 125 

form in which we originally presented it ; but house file No. 5161/^ was 
reported by the committee as a substitute for that and other bills 
that had been introduced on the subject and was passed in both the 
house and the senate in the form in which it came from the committee, 
and constitutes chapter 143 of the acts of the twentieth general assem- 
bly. And it is this law upon which Judge Conrad bases his opinion. 
That the friends of this law never intended or believed that it would 
prohibit the manufacture of alcohol in this state for export clearly 
appears from the record. Pending the vote upon the passage of this 
bill in the house the friends of the bill indulged in very little speech- 
making, and Governor Carpenter and Mr. Kerr were the only mem- 
bers who undertook to reply to the assaults of its opponents. The 
first effort of the opponents of the bill was to try and load it down 
with amendments and thereby secure its defeat. An amendment was 
offered by Mr. Bolter, of Harrison, making the bill an absolute pro- 
hibition of the manufacture of intoxicating liquors in this state, and 
this amendment came within one vote of being adopted. The vote 
stood fifty votes against the amendment and forty-nine for it. The 
entire fifty members that voted against this amendment of Mr. Bolter, 
voted for the passage of the bill the next day, while of the forty-nine 
that voted for Mr. Bolter's amendment nearly all of them voted 
against the passage of the bill. The Iowa State Register the morn- 
ing after this vote was taken contained the following leading editorial 
giving an account of this attempt to kill the bill. I quote from the 
State Register of February 29, 1884, as follows : 

The house spent the day yesterday on the prohibition bill. Our 
report in detail shows how desperately the democrats are fighting the 
inevitable. 

The spectacle of the democrats voting at one time yesterday, for 
dishonest purposes, for absolute prohibition, and next ranging them- 
selves on the side of the low license or practically no temperance law 
at all, is a viAdd illustration of the insincerity of that party on the 
temperance question. Their attitude is insincerity itself, and they are 
ready to do anything to defeat honest temperance measures. The 
only test vote had yesterday was on the Bolter absolute prohibition 
bill (amendment) which was defeated by forty-nine yeas to fifty nays; 
all the democrats and all the greenbackers and one republican, Mr. 
Schee, voting for the amendment. Fifty republicans voted in the 
negative. 

During the pendency of the discussion the Register of the same 
date contains a report of the speeches of Governor Carpenter and Mr. 



126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Kerr in favor of the bill. The following is the full text of Mr. Kerr's 
speech as reported in the Register of February 28, 1884. Mr. Kerr 
said: 

The opponents of the bill were wonderfully afraid it would not 
prohibit. There had never been any question as to the constitution- 
ality of the amendment passed in 1882. It was only the manner of 
its enactment by the nineteenth general assembly that had rendered it 
invalid. He agreed with Mr. Dabney that the manufacture of liquors 
for any purpose was wrong. What was it the people of the state 
wanted to prohibit ? The saloons ; those hot-beds of infamy that were 
constantly bringing disgrace upon the state and misery upon the 
people. Any representative who fails to crystallize into form of law 
the will of the people fails to do his duty. How are we to know 
this sentiment, if not by the votes of the people ? There is no better 
way. Mr. Bolter was eloquent in his denunciations of the evils of in- 
toxication and he agreed with that gentleman and hoped when the 
time came the man from Harrison would vote in accordance with that 
sentiment. There are no interests in the state, vested or otherwise, 
that are higher than the interests of the whole people of the state, 
and it was better for a few to lose a few dollars than to entail and 
fasten upon the state an industry that directly or indirectly injures 
every man in it. It is best for all to have the business wiped out. 
Mr. Merrill asked Mr. Kerr if the bill permitted the manufacture of 
liquors for export. Mr. Kerr replied that the bill had been prepared 
by its friends and it was not intended to have it loaded down by its 
enemies. The intention of the law was not to prohibit the manufac- 
ture for exportation, as there were some doubts as to tvhether that 
could he done. 

This law as it passed the house was published in full in the Regis- 
ter of the 28th of February, and on the 29th of February we have this 
leading editorial in the same paper : 

The Iowa City Press tries to prove the impossible thing that the 
proposed prohibitory law in Iowa will discriminate against Iowa 
brewers and in favor of Iowa distillers. The same stale cry of the 
democratic campaign. We have heretofore shown that the proposed 
interdiction treats distillery and brewery alike and leaves both free to 
manufacture for export. 

As to the vineyards of Johnson and other Iowa counties, their 
products ought to be able to ship as far and sell as well as the product 
of the Iowa distillers, and it will do so if it is a good article ; if it is 
not a good article it will find no buyer at home now or abroad 
hereafter. 

I have quoted the above remarks of Mr. Kerr, for the reason that 
Mr. Kerr was one of the most staunch and extreme prohibitionists on 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 127 

that he was in favor of absolute prohibition ; but at the same time he 
distinctly repudiates the idea that the legislation which he was then 
advocating was intended to accomplish any such end. The state 
temperance convention had simply demanded of the legislature that the 
will of the people of Iowa as expressed in the vote upon the consti- 
tutional amendment should be embodied in a law of the state. Or as 
Mr. Kerr very significantly remarks, should be "crystallized into law." 
It is well known as a part of the history of this temperance move- 
ment that the Iowa State Register, the leading journal of the state 
that advocated the constitutional amendment, demanded of the nine- 
teenth general assembly, as one of the conditions upon wliich it would 
support the amendment, that it should adopt a joint resolution defin- 
ing the meaning and intent of that proposed amendment, and that it 
should declare that it was not intended to prevent the manufacture of 
intoxicating liquors for the purpose of export and sale beyond the 
state boundaries. That resolution, with the vote by which it was 
adopted, is on page 501 of the senate journal, 1882, and is as follows : 

Whereas, doubts have been suggested as to the true intent and 
meaning of the joint resolution proposing to amend the constitution 
of this state, etc. ; therefore be it 

Resolved by the senate, that said proposed amendment was and is 
designed and intended to prohibit the manufacture within this state 
for sale within this state as a beverage, of all intoxicating liquors, in- 
cluding ale, wine and beer, and to prohibit the selling of such liquors 
within this state for use as a beverage, and prohibit the keeping of 
such liquors, for sale as a beverage within this state; and was not de- 
signed to prohibit the manufacture, sale or keeping for sale of such 
liquors for any or all other purposes. 

The yeas were : Senators Abraham, Arnold, Boling, Brown of 
Keokuk, CLARK OF PAGE, Cotton, Dashiel, Gillet, Greenlee, Huston, 
Hartshorn, HEMIMINGWAY, Johnson, Kamrar, Logan, Marshall, 
Nichols of Benton, Nichols of Guthrie, NICHOLS OF MUSCATINE, 
Parker, Patrick, Poyneer, Prizer, Russell of Greene, Russell of Jones, 
Sudlow, Terrill, Wall, Whaley, Wilson, Wright— 31. 

All republicans and all prohibitionists, except Wall, who was a 
greenbaeker. Those who think that it is disloyalty to the cause in 
me to advocate this same doctrine now should reflect that Clark of 
Page, and Hemmingway, and Pliney Nichols, are all in the same 
boat— to say nothing of the Iowa State Register, at whose special pro- 
curement this resolution was passed. The next morning after this 



128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

resolution was adopted, March 18, 1882, the Register contained the 
following editorial: 

The senate defined the meaning of the proposed prohibitory- 
amendment and gave to it the beverage interpretation for which the 
Register has so steadily and persistently contended. So that now 
the people of Iowa have the true definition of the amendment, which 
is, that it is to deal with liquors in manufacture and sale only as a 
beverage in the state of Iowa. It was this interpretation that the 
Register asked for in order to support it. 

But the meaning of this law is, in my judgment, clear, from the 
text of the act itself without reference to this legislative history. 
This law left in full force section 1542 of the code, which defines the 
offense of keeping intoxicating liquors with intent to sell the same in 
the following terms: 

No person shall own and keep, or be in any way concerned, en- 
gaged or employed in owning or keeping intoxicating liquors with in- 
tent to sell the same within this state, or permit the same to be sold 
therein, in violation of the provisions hereof. 

This is in entire harmony with two decisions of our supreme 
court rendered prior to 1884, declaring that alcohol was. an article 
of commerce that might be lawfully held and owned and kept within 
this state and for sale and export beyond the state. The prohibition 
contained in this section, 1542, against keeping intoxicating liquors 
with intent to sell the same within the state, is a clear declaration of 
the legislature that to keep or own the same with intent to sell it be- 
yond the bounds of the state is not a violation of the law. And the 
amendment of 1884 in regard to the transportation of liquors, an 
amendment which I prepared myself and which was incorporated in 
the law in the very language in which I wrote it, prohibits any rail- 
road company or common carrier from knowingly ''bringing into the 
state " or " transporting intoxicating liquors between points within the 
state" without first having been furnished with a certificate from the 
county auditor certifying that the consignee or person for whom the 
liquor is to be transported is authorized to sell the same within the 
state. It is very evident that if this provision of law, which is sec- 
tion 1553, was intended to prohibit the export of intoxicating liquors, 
it would not have been so careful to limit the prohibition to importa- 
tion and to transportation between points within the state. The sec- 
tion was written with express reference to the theory that the manu- 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 129 

facture of intoxicating liquors in this state for purposes of export 
was not prohibited by law. 

After this law of 1884 took effect, it will be remembered, that we 
organized in Iowa county alliances for the purpose of prosecuting 
offenders and enforcing its penalties. Such an organization was ef- 
fected in Polk county, and I had the honor of being nominated as the 
chairman of the judiciary committee of such organization, which com- 
mittee was charged with the duty of employing attorneys and enroll- 
ing prosecutions under the law. In May, 1884, Judge C. C. Cole, of 
this city, received from the Western Export Association of Distillers 
in the United States a claim against the International Distillery for 
$17,499.68, which it was claimed Mr. Kidd owed the pool, on account 
of over-production. It will be necessary to give some explanation of 
the character of this claim. The "Western Export Association is an 
association of the alcohol distillers of the United States, chiefly lo- 
cated at Peoria, Illinois, whereby they undertake to control the manu- 
facture of alcohol and limit its production in relation to the demand, 
and thus control and keep up the price of the article. The entire 
scheme is an unlawful one as against public policy, in that it estab- 
lishes a monopoly and prevents competition in the production of a 
legitimate article of commerce and sale. Judge Cole was too good a 
lawyer to go into court with a suit upon such a demand, and he con- 
ceived the idea of using the criminal processes of the law against Mr. 
Kidd for the purpose of extorting from him this demand of the 
whisky pool. In accordance with this purpose Mr. J. S. Clark, liis 
partner and afterwards one of the plaintiffs in this present suit, Mr. 
S. J. Loughran, was induced to appear before the county alliance and 
offer the services of Mr. Cole free of any charge to the alliance, for 
the purpose of prosecuting the International Distillery and harass- 
ing them with prosecutions upon alleged violation of the law, and 
asking that the secretary of our association, Mr. Littleton, give the use 
of his name for the purpose of filing complaints. The proposition was 
referred to the judiciary committee of the county alliance, of which 
I was chairman, and was duly presented to me by the secretary. It 
is hardly necessary for me to say that I refused to enter into such a 
conspiracy or to favor the use of the alliance for any such purpose. 
We had organized in good faith in this county for the purpose of en- 
forcing the prohibitory law in the interest of the cause of temperance, 
and not for the purpose of collecting the illegal demands of the whisky 



130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

pool and the distillers of Illinois. The following is a literal copy of 
Judge Cole's letter to Mr. John S. Kidd, in relation to this claim: 

Des Moines, Iowa, May 24, 1884. 
John S. Kidd, Esq., President International Distillery Company, 

Des Moines, Iowa. 
Dear Sir: The Western Export Association has placed in my 
hands for collection by immediate suit a claim of $17,499.68 against 
the International Distillery Company, and you as its president. My 
pleasant personal associations with you have prompted me to ask and 
obtain permission for my client to delay the actual bringing of the 
suit till noon of Monday next, May 26th. I could not obtain leave 
for further delay because certain members of the association, who also 
have retained me to bring suit if this is not settled, claim that they 
are being further damaged to the extent of thousands of dollars 
daily, by the course of your company. Hoping to see you and to re- 
ceive payment of the claim before Monday noon, I remain as ever 
Very truly yours, C. C. Cole 

To this very remarkable epistle Mr. Kidd made response of the 
same date as follows : 

Permit me to suggest that you should not allow personal consider- 
ations to interfere with professional duties. This bit of advice is 
given gratis and by way of friendly return for the favor of your 
grace over Sabbath on the modest demand you make. 

Yours truly, John S. Kidd 

It is unnecessary to say in this connection that Judge Cole never 
filed any petition in court on this modest demand. After the county 
alliance refused the use of its name or influence for the purpose of ex- 
torting this money out of Mr. Kidd, a clerk in Judge Cole's law office 
filed complaint against Mr, Kidd and procured warrants for the seizure 
of alcohol manufactured and shipped for export beyond the bounds of 
the state. All of these prosecutions proved ignominious failures. The 
present suit against Mr. Kidd was commenced in December, 1885, 
Lewis Todhunter appearing of record as attorney for the plaintiff, 
and I. E. Pearson and S. J. Loughran as the nominal plaintiffs. 

In October, 1885, Mr, Loughran, at a meeting of the county 
alliance, offered a resolution instructing its officers to commence suit 
against the International Distillery, provided evidence coidd be found 
against it. I was not present at the meeting, and on motion of Mr. 
Lee the resolution was referred to the judiciary committee. 

Upon inquiry of Mr. Harvey, the then president, and Mr. Little- 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 131 

ton, the secretary, I found that neither of those officers had any infor- 
mation upon wliich a suit could be predicated, and neither would ad- 
vise a prosecution. Mr. Loughran nor any one else ever approached 
tlie committee on the subject, or furnished the alliance any evidence. 

The statement has been made that I was at this time the attorney 
for Mr. Kidd. This is wholly untrue. It is true, however, that early 
in 1884 the firm of Nourse & Kauffman was called upon by Mr. Kidd, 
for a consultation with the attorneys, Messrs. Lehmann & Park, in re- 
gard to his business affairs, and upon the matter of the construction of 
the act of 1884, Mr. Kidd advising us at that time that he desired 
strictly to observe the law in the manufacture of alcohol. We gave 
him our opinion at the time, and he paid our firm a fee of fifty dollars. 
I have had no business connection with Mr. Kidd or the International 
Distillery since that time, until my employment in this case, after the 
decision of Judge Conrad a few weeks ago. 

Early in the year 1886 the secretary of the Polk county alliance 
reported that the funds of the organization and the available sub- 
scriptions were exhausted, and that liabilities had been incurred that 
we were unable to meet. Several unsuccessful efforts to have the sub- 
scriptions to our funds renewed were made. Mr. Harvey, on account 
of other engagements, declined a re-election as president of the county 
alliance in June, 1886. It seemed impossible to get a responsible per- 
son to accept of the position. Under these circumstances I. E. Pearson 
succeeded to that office. Though a gentleman of elegant leisure, he has 
never, since his election, been able, by his influence or exertions, to put 
a dollar into the treasury of the alliance. 

He has, however, been operating quite extensively on "his own 
hook," as he says. His principal enterprise, apart from his present 
suit against Mr. Kidd, has been to watch the incoming of the monthly 
reports that the law requires the druggist to make to the county audi- 
tor, and whenever, by any misadventure, their reports have been 
delayed a few days beyond the time fixed by the law. Pearson has 
brought suit against them for the one hundred dollars penalty provided 
by the statute, and then compromised for the largest amount he could 
get out of the defendant. In this way he has made hundreds of 
dollars for himself and has been able to support such an improved 
style of personal appearance that it has attracted public attention 
and newspaper comment. 

In this new role of "affidavit maker" to the State Register he has 



132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

already attained distinction. Whether this enterprise will prove a 
financial success I do not know, as I am not advised as to the terms of 
the new partnership. It is not yet known whether Pearson has taken 
the State Register into partnership, or whether the Register has taken 
in Pearson. 

It has always been my fortune in life to antagonize men of this 
stamp. If I have not as many friends as some men of less positive 
opinions, I have the consolation to know that I have reason to be 
proud of the character of my enemies. 

By what means he has induced eminent counsel, backed by the 
active influence of the Iowa State Register, to prosecute this case 
against Mr. Kidd, remains a mystery. To the oft-repeated inquiries 
of members of the alliance for information on this subject his answers 
have been evasive and entirely unsatisfactory. Judge Cole in his 
letter to Mr. Kidd mentions that certain members of the export asso- 
ciation were being damaged "to the extent of thousands of dollars 
daily ' ' by the course pursued by the International Distillery. ' ' Thous- 
ands of dollars daily" is a large amount of money, and a very grave 
apprehension exists in the minds of many of the temperance men of 
this community that these "certain other individuals" are not idle 
spectators in this contest. When or how Judge Cole and Mr. Run- 
nells or the Iowa State Register came into the case I do not know — I 
only know that they "got there," 

"... he has no wings at all. 
But he gets there all the same." 

Judge Cole and Mr. Runnells are also defending Hurlbut, Hess 
& Co., and the six thousand dollars of intoxicating liquors condemned 
by the jury in that case. They are also attorneys for Rowe, the man 
who shot down Constable Logan. No one, I believe, has questioned 
their right to act as counsel for the defense in these matters or even 
suggested the impropriety of their employment. I certainly would 
not do so. The Iowa State Register has besought the public to sus- 
pend any judgment as to the guilt or innocence of Rowe, but to await 
the judicial investigation of the case. This is certainly commend- 
able forbearance, but why the same spirit of fair play should not be 
manifested toward Mr. Kidd pending the judicial determination of 
his rights, I cannot understand. Does it make any difference because 
Mr. Runnells is defending in the one case and prosecuting in the 
other? Surely a man who has invested two hundred and fifty thous- 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 133 

and dollars in manufacturing in our city, by the advice and encourage- 
ment of the Register, is entitled to as much consideration as the man 
who takes the life of a public officer whilst in the discharge of an 
official duty. The statement that the State Temperance Alliance has 
ever favored or endorsed the prosecution of Mr. Kidd is wholly with- 
out foundation. 

I have now answered very fully all of the inquiries in your letter 
save, perhaps, the last, and that is as to the relation and effect of the 
present suit to the cause of prohibition in Iowa. Permit me to say to 
you, and through you to the true friends of prohibition in this state, 
that we have now upon our statute books a most excellent law, that is 
every day gaining favor with the people, and that has survived all 
open warfare upon it. In my humble judgment the most we now have 
to fear is not the open opposition of its enemies, but the follies and 
indiscretions of its friends. As I have already conclusively shown in 
this communication, we procured the enactment of this law by assuring 
the people of this state that we did not intend to interfere with the 
manufacture of alcohol or intoxicating liquors for medicinal or 
mechanical purposes, nor as an article of commerce for export. The 
question is, have we anything to gain by duplicity and insincerity, 
and by now claiming for this law what we did not claim for it 
when we procured its enactment by the general assembly? Above 
all things, have we, as prohibitionists, anything to gain by entering 
into an alliance with the distillers of other states who are making 
war upon a productive industry in our own state, for the sole pur- 
pose of promoting their own pecuniary interests in destroying com- 
petition in their business? Have we anything to gain by turning 
aside from the great work that we have undertaken of destroying 
the saloon as a place of resort where our young men are taught 
the habit of intoxication, and engaging in the Utopian scheme of 
regulating the supply of alcohol in the markets of the world, the use 
of which it is impossible for us to control after it passess beyond the 
jurisdiction of our laws? 

There is another very grave and important question that the true 
friends of prohibition in Iowa should stop to consider. The courts of 
the United States have more than intimated that if the prohibitory law 
of Iowa does in fact destroy the value of property built for a use which 
was lawful at the time of its erection, that such a law is a violation of 



134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

the constitution of the United States, unless it also makes provision 
for compensation to the owner. 

This International Distillery was built and in full operation before 
the amendment of 1884 was enacted. By virtue of its provisions a 
limitation only, in my humble judgment, was placed upon the uses 
for which alcohol might be sold within the state. The answer to the 
position that our law is unconstitutional because it affects the value 
of this property is, that it does not prevent the manufacture of alcohol 
for export or for sale within the state for lawful purposes. But if we 
propose to destroy the value of this property by this new interpreta- 
tion of our statute, and say that it is our purpose and intent to pre- 
vent its use for the manufacture of alcohol for export, then may we 
not seriously apprehend that our law will be held unconstitutional, and 
may we not, in attempting too much, lose all ? The fable of the dog 
crossing the log over the stream, that dropped the meat from his 
mouth in order that he might grasp the shadow, I would recommend 
to the careful study and perusal of some of our pretended friends. 

But there is still another political phase of tliis question that we 
ought to carefully consider. Heretofore we have put the opponents of 
this law upon the necessity of defending the saloon as an institution; 
we have made the suppression of these places of resort the war-cry of 
our campaign. Is it the part of wisdom to change tliis issue and 
assume the affirmative of the proposition that the good order and peace 
of society requires that we should sliip our corn to Peoria to be manu- 
factured into alcohol rather than have it manufactured in our own 
state, either for medicinal or mechanical purposes or for export? For 
one I fail to see any wisdom in such a proceeding. I am not prepared 
to join in or acquiesce in such a folly. In accepting a retainer from 
Mr. Kidd in the case now pending in the supreme court I did so be- 
cause it was my plain duty, as a laAvyer, to defend the legal rights as 
I believe them to be, of a man whose property was unjustly and ille- 
gally assailed. I was not employed in the case until after Judge 
Conrad 's decision. That the temperance people of Iowa will find any 
fault with me for presenting to the supreme court the question of law 
involved in this appeal I cannot well believe. How will these ques- 
tions be answered? 

First. Do they ask or desire that the property of any citizen shall 
be destroyed and condemned without a fair and full trial before the 
appellate court? 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 135 

Second. Does not a fair trial also involve the right of the citizen 
to have the aid of a counsel ? 

Third. If the defendant is to have the aid of counsel, can my 
employment be any more objectionable than the employment of one 
who is an enemy of the law ? 

Fourth. Is it not true that the view of the statute that I propose 
to present to the court, is the view that we nearly all pretended to 
have when we procured the passage of the law ? 

The decision of Judge Conrad, though made no doubt with the 
utmost sincerity and good faith on his part, I regard as a mistake, 
and an unfortunate one for the cause of prohibition. In the interview 
published by the Register I said that neither the decisions of courts 
nor the conduct of lawyers or newspapers would defeat the ultimate 
triumph of prohibition. I still have faith in that proposition. If 
I have erred, or if the courts shall decide too much or too little, yet 
legal prohibition as a principle is right, and I believe will ultimately 
triumph. I do not believe the present prosecution of Mr. Kidd is 
justified by the law or the facts, and injustice and illegal prosecutions 
are not in my judgment the means of success in a good cause. What- 
ever personal malice may originate of misrepresentation or abuse of 
me in this matter, gives me no concern. I am used to this kind of 
thing and have never turned aside from my professional duty because 
of attempted newspaper intimidations. I am now in the thirty-sixth 
year of my practice in Iowa, and can afford, I think, to perform a 
plain professional duty. Asking pardon for the extent of this com- 
munication, which I have necessarily made somewhat in detail in order 
that your questions might be fully answered, I remain as I have ever 
been, an earnest friend and co-worker in the cause of prohibition, and 
Most truly your humble servant, 

C. C. NOURSE 

The case of Pearson & Loughran against the International 
Distillery and J, S. Kidd was submitted to the supreme court 
upon oral and printed argument at the June term, 1887. 

The republican state convention that was to nominate a 
supreme judge met at Des Moines, August 24th of that year. 
The supreme court at that time consisted of W. H. Seevers, 
Joseph Reed, Jos. M. Beck, James H. Eothrock, and Austin 
Adams. The latter named judge's term expired the first of 



136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

January, 1888, and either his renomination or the nomination 
of some one in lieu of him came before the republican conven- 
tion to be held in August. J. S. Clarkson, the editor of the 
Register, and Mr. John Runnells, Esquire, the attorney of 
record nominally of Pearson and Loughran, but in fact acting 
for the whisky trust ; to-wit, the Western Export Association, 
secured their nomination as delegates to the republican state 
convention. During the sitting of the court and before any 
opinion was announced it was well understood in the com- 
munity that Judges Seevers and Reed had written an opinion 
reversing the decision of Judge Conrad, and that Judges 
Beck and Rothrock had written an opinion affirming the case, 
and that the fifth judge; to-wit, Judge Adams, had not yet 
officially concurred in either opinion and that the result of the 
case would rest with Judge Adams as he might concur with 
one or the other of these opinions. J. S. Clarkson and Mr. 
John Runnells, just prior to the meeting of the state conven- 
tion, asked for a private interview with Judge Adams, which 
was accorded them. Just what was said or done in that inter- 
view and what subjects were discussed between these gentle- 
men and Judge Adams I do not know. It is possible they 
talked about the weather and that the question of the renomi- 
nation of Judge Adams, and his views and opinions or incli- 
nations with reference to the distillery, may not have been 
mentioned between them. Very considerable opposition to 
Judge Adams's renomination had developed throughout the 
state, principally upon the ground of his alleged favoritism to 
the railroad interests, and his renomination was in great 
doubt ; indeed, when the convention met Judge Adams failed 
to get the nomination, and his friends, Clarkson and Run- 
nells, only succeeded in controlling thirteen votes in his favor 
in the Polk county delegation. After the convention and the 
defeat of Judge Adams, Mr. Clarkson wrote a very mournful 
howl over Judge Adams's defeat, exceedingly regretting the 
result. Still there was no opinion filed in the distillery case 
until the night of the 10th day of September following, when 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 137 

Judge Adams's name appears as concurring in the opinion 
written by Judge Beck. These two opinions are very re- 
markable. The opinion written by Judge Beck and concurred 
in by Rothrock and Adams assumes the extraordinary posi- 
tion that inasmuch as the law in expressed terms permitted 
the manufacture of alcohol within the state for medicinal, 
mechanical, and sacramental purposes, and did not in terms 
provide for the manufacture within the state for export, there- 
fore it was prohibited by the law. 

The opinion of the minority of the court written by Judge 
Seevers, and concurred in by Judge Reed, assumes the position 
that inasmuch as the manufacture for the purpose of export 
was not prohibited, therefore, it was lawful. The opinion of 
the majority of the court, it was claimed, was contrary to the 
language and decision of our supreme court in the cases there- 
tofore decided by the court in Niles v. Fries, 35 Iowa, 41, and 
Becker v. Betten, 39 Iowa, 668. In the former case in 35 
Iowa, Judge Beck himself in delivering the opinion of the 
court uses the following language : ' ' Intoxicating liquors in 
the possession of a citizen who holds them for the purpose of 
selling them lawfully, within the state, or for transporting 
them without the state for lawful traffic, are not, under the 
statute, subject to seizure. ' ' Judge Beck gets rid of the force 
and effect of his prior decision by saying that his language 
was "obiter dicta." When, however, the opinion comes to 
wrestle with the question as to confining the police power of 
the state, to matters that concern the good order of society 
and the health of the people of the state, but did not extend 
to the inhabitants of the other states of the Union, Judge 
Beck gets rid of this suggestion by claiming that there is a sort 
of comity between the states by which the legislature of one 
state ought to consider the well being and happiness of the 
people of the other states. This suggestion is rather fanciful 
than otherwise, particularly as applied to this case, for that 
the other states, particularly New York to which this alcohol 
was exported, have never undertaken to control either the 



138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

manufacture, sale, or use of alcoholic spirits. In the inter- 
pretation of all statutes and in case of doubt it is a well rec- 
ognized rule of interpretation that the court must consider 
what evil it was existing prior to the enactment of the statute 
that the statute was intended to correct or remedy. The idea 
that the people of Iowa were seized with a desire to limit the 
manufacture of alcohol in order to prevent it being taken to 
New York was simply Utopian and had no real existence. The 
real parties that were attempting to limit the manufacture 
of alcohol in Iowa for export was the whisky trust that 
desired to keep up the price of the article in the New York 
market, and this fact was well known to the supreme court and 
to the three judges that concurred in the opinion of the ma- 
jority. Judge Beck's opinion, aside from the question of law 
involved, was a very excellent temperance speech against the 
use of alcohol as a beverage, but had no relation whatever to 
the case. I write thus freely upon this subject for the reason 
that Mr. Kauffman and myself had given a written opinion as 
to the reasonable construction of this law, relying upon the 
former decisions of our own supreme court and the language 
of Judge Beck himself. Mr. Kidd had made his investment 
in good faith in a manufacturing industry, manufacturing an 
article that was recognized as useful for many purposes, both 
as a medicine and for mechanical purposes, and there was 
nothing in the article itself to determine the use for which it 
was intended when it was manufactured. Whilst it might 
be used for the purpose of making a beverage destructive to 
human life and happiness, yet, so far as the law was con- 
cerned, it was only by restricting the sale of it for the de- 
structive uses to which it might be applied that any remedy 
could be made effectual. 

The effect of this decision politically, as a means of destroy- 
ing the faith of the people in a law that the legislature had 
wisely passed, was soon made manifest. There was at this 
time in the city of Des Moines a young lawyer, then attorney 
for the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company, ambitious 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 139 

for political preferment, by the name of A. B. Cummins, His 
partner in business was Mr. Carroll Wright, the son of ex- 
Chief Justice Wright who was attorney for Koehler & Lange 
in securing the opinion of the supreme court that destroyed 
legally the constitutional amendment. A meeting of anii- 
prohibition republicans was called and held at the city council 
chamber in the city of Des Moines about August 25, 1887, in 
which certain resolutions were adopted denouncing the pro- 
hibitory law and favoring local option and licensing of the 
sale of intoxicating liquors. The resolutions of that conven- 
tion were signed by ninety-two nominal republicans, and they 
nominated as their candidates for the legislature A. B. Cum- 
mins and Adam Baker. Mr. Cummins accepted the nomina- 
tion in a letter dated August 25, 1887, writing a letter joining 
in the denunciations against the prohibitory law of Iowa and 
the fraudulent practices of the constables who had taken ad- 
vantage of the law to make profit to their own use. 

In addition to this work of the enemies of prohibition in 
Iowa, performed as its pretended friends and advocates, there 
were several other causes at work to weaken the confidence 
of the people in the statute. Two constables of the city of 
Des Moines set about to make money out of the enforcement 
of the law. They entered into a conspiracy with the persons 
who were selling intoxicating liquors, inducing them to put 
one or two bottles of liquor in a convenient place in their 
establishments, and then filing information under the law 
against the place, procuring a search warrant, searching the 
place and finding these few bottles, prosecuting and destroy- 
ing the two bottles, no one appearing to claim the same, and 
then having the costs of the proceedings all taxed up against 
the county. These bills ran up to hundreds of dollars, and 
the enemies of the law were loud in their denunciations of the 
statute, but had little to say against the criminal practices of 
those whose duty it was to observe and enforce the law. 

Mr. Cummins made a vigorous canvass of the county, re- 
ceiving in addition to the nomination of these so-called repub- 



140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

licans, the nomination of the democratic convention, and by 
the aid of the democratic party and the whisky interests of 
the county he succeeded in being elected a member of the next 
general assembly under his oft-repeated pledge during the 
canvass to secure if possible the repeal of the prohibitory law, 
and the enactment of the license law. 

With all these influences, however, operating against the 
law, the next general assembly made no serious attempt to re- 
peal the act. By an act approved January 29, 1857, the legis- 
lature had attempted to establish what was known as local 
option in Iowa. The act of 1857 provided for the license and 
sale of intoxicating liquors in any county of the state where 
the people by majority vote of the electors adopted the same, 
and by such adoption that the provisions of the act of 1854 
would stand repealed as to that county. Our supreme court 
held this act of 1857 to be unconstitutional for the reason that 
our constitution required that all laws should be of uniform 
operation, and upon this subject of uniformity the court uses 
the following language : 

The sixth section of the bill of rights declares, that "all acts of a 
general nature shall have a uniform operation." Constitution, Article 
I. Recognizing as we do the distinction between laws of a general 
nature and those of a special or local character, we understand by the 
"operation" of a law is meant its practical working and effect. It is 
not, in our opinion, a sufficient compliance with the requirements of the 
constitution, that under the provisions of the act of the 29th of Jan- 
uary, 1857, the question of licensing the sale of spirituous liquors is to 
be submitted to the vote of the qualified electors of all the counties of 
the state. Something more is contemplated by the constitution, in the 
words ' ' uniform operation. ' ' We must look further, and to the effect 
of such submission to the vote of the people, and to the consequences 
to result from the adoption of the law. The prohibitory liquor law is a 
law of a general nature, and its operation must be uniform throughout 
the state. Can we say that such is the case, if it remains in full force 
in one county, while it is repealed in others by a vote of the people, 
and a license law adopted in its stead ? And is the act of 1857, if the 
effect of it is to bring about this want of uniformity in the operation of 



TEMPERANCE AND PROHIBITION 141 

a law of a general nature, to be deemed constitutional and valid? "We 
think not. 

The vote authorized to be taken upon the adoption of the act, 
while it is objectionable in a constitutional point of view, as transfer- 
ring the law-making powers from the legislature to the people, is 
further objectionable in view of the possible, not to say the probable, 
result of such vote. "We cannot undertake to determine, nor can it, 
under any circumstances, be foreseen, that the result of the vote will 
be uniform in all the counties of the state, either in favor of license or 
against it. In some of the counties the vote may not be taken; in 
others, the majority may be against license ; while in others, the ma- 
jority may be in its favor. Unanimity of sentiment, either one way 
or the other, can hardly be reckoned upon. These views, we think, 
add weight to the argument against the constitutionality of submit- 
ting the act to a vote of the people. We do not, however, base wholly 
upon them our conclusion against the validity of the act in question, 
nor upon the fact that the result of the vote upon the question of adopt- 
ing it may not be uniform throughout the state. Upon this latter 
branch of the subject, the members of the court are not unanimous 
in opinion. 

The majority of the court are of the opinion, that while the act 
must without doubt be deemed to be a law of a general nature, it 
is liable to objection, as prescribing no uniform rule of civil conduct 
to the people of the state, and as not providing of itself for its uni- 
form operation. The legislative power must command. It must not 
leave to the people the choice to obey or not to obey its requirements. 
It is not a law enacted according to the requirements of the consti- 
tution, if there is left to the action and choice of the people upon 
whom it is to operate the determination of a question which may re- 
sult in a want of uniformity in the operation of a law of a general 
nature. 

I shall take occasion to refer to this decision of the supreme 
court hereafter when I come to notice the passage by the legis- 
lature of the miserable subterfuge now known as the ''mulct 
law." 



CHAPTER X 

Regulation of Freight and Passenger Tariffs 

Leaving the subject of temperance and prohibition for the 
present, the next important question of a public nature in 
which I became interested professionally was the question of 
the regulation of freight and passenger tariffs by the general 
assembly of the state. The general assembly of 1888 enacted 
a law providing for the election of three Railroad Commis- 
sioners, and gave them authority to prepare schedules of rates 
that might be charged by the railroads of the state for the 
transportation of freight and passengers. 

Under this statute the people elected as Commissioners 
Frank T. Campbell, Peter A. Dey, and Spencer Smith. In 
pursuance of the authority of the statute these Commissioners 
proceeded to formulate schedules of rates to be charged by 
the several railroads of the state. The law required the Com- 
missioners to publish for three successive weeks in certain 
newspapers the date at which these rates should take effect. 
Before the third publication was made the attorneys of the 
Northwestern Railroad Company telegraphed to the Railroad 
Commissioners requesting a change of the date of the taking 
effect of their proposed schedule of rates, and received from 
the secretary of the board, under the instructions of Mr. Dey, 
an answer that the time of the taking effect would be changed 
accordingly. A new advertisement was prepared and pub- 
lished, but before the three insertions were completed three of 
the principal railroad companies operating in the state ; to- wit, 
the Northwestern, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Mil- 
waukee & St. Paul filed their petitions with the circuit court of 
the United States for an injunction against the further publi- 
cation of the notice, on the ground that the rates fixed by the 



i 



FREIGHT AND PASSENGER TARIFFS 143 

Railroad Commissioners were not compensatory. The hearing 
of this application was had before Justice Brewer at his resi- 
dence in Leavenworth, Kansas. I was employed by the Rail- 
road Commissioners to appear in their behalf, and Mr. James 
T. Lain, of Davenport, was employed by certain shippers of 
that place to appear with me in the case. We argued the case 
before Justice Brewer, and he granted the injunction on the 
28th of July, 1888. This injunction in large part was based 
upon the evidence of the complainants' general manager to 
the effect that the Commissioners had adopted a classification 
known as the western classification, which, as compared with 
the classification known as the Illinois classification made a 
difference against the railroads of fifty per cent. Subsequent 
to the granting of these injunctions, upon complaint of certain 
shippers the Railroad Commissioners, after a hearing before 
them, proceeded to formulate new schedules, and in pursuance 
of what appeared to be the principal objection at the former 
hearing they adopted a classification more favorable to the 
railroad companies known as the Illinois classification. Im- 
mediately upon this action of the Railroad Commissioners the 
railroad companies filed a supplemental bill asking a further 
injunction to restrain the Railroad Commissioners from put- 
ting into effect these new rates with the new classification. 
Mr. Campbell of the Railroad Commissioners immediately 
waited on me asking my further appearance in the cause to 
argue the question of a further injunction as against their new 
schedules and classification. He expressed a doubt as to 
whether or not it was worth our efforts to defeat this new ap- 
plication as he was disposed to think that Judge Brewer would 
grant whatever the railroad companies might ask in this be- 
half. I told him that he had a duty to perform as a public 
officer, in my opinion, and if the Commissioners did their duty 
in making the proper resistance to this new application, the 
responsibility would rest with Judge Brewer if he failed in his 
duty. We accordingly made the necessary preparation for a 
hearing, which was finally had at St. Paul, Minnesota. In the 



144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

argument of this case the attorneys for the three railroads 
applying for the injunction made a very formidable array of 
distinguished counsel embracing the ablest lawyers of Chicago 
and Milwaukee. A. J. Baker was then Attorney General of 
the state of Iowa and nominally appeared with me for the 
Commissioners, but gave me no assistance whatever. We had 
for an audience in the argument of the case many leading men 
of Minnesota, members of the State Grange of that state, 
which association was then in session at St. Paul. I took into 
the court-room a blackboard that I extemporized for the occa- 
sion and taking several copies of the official reports of the 
railroads in question, I put one copy in the hands of Justice 
Brewer, holding another copy in my hand and putting the 
figures upon the blackboard, showing the earnings of these 
railroads and what they were pleased to call their fixed 
charges, and demonstrating beyond question that the com- 
plaints made of the proposed railroad rates were without 
foundation. The same person who had made an affidavit in 
regard to the difference between the Illinois and the western 
classification had made a new affidavit stating that there was 
an error in his former computation. I criticised with some 
severity the reliability of the affidavits in which mistakes oc- 
curred according to the convenience and exigencies of this liti- 
gation. I had not much confidence in the result, however, but 
I felt quite complimented when a number of the leading men 
of the Minnesota Grange, who were present at the argument, 
made me a complimentary visit at the hotel that evening. 
The attorney for the railroad company who was expected to 
make the closing argument in the case complained that he did 
not feel very well and only spoke about fifteen or twenty 
minutes in a general way, without going into the facts or 
figures in the case. My supposed assistant, the Attorney Gen- 
eral of the state of Iowa, took no part in the argument, and on 
my way home that night I learned that he had been in con- 
ference with Mr. Stickney of the Chicago Great Western Rail- 
road Company, and had made an arrangement with that 



FREIGHT AND PASSENGER TARIFFS 145 

gentleman for employment as attorney for that corporation, 
to take effect at the close of his then official term which was to 
occur in a few months. On the 2nd day of the ensuing Feb- 
ruary, 1889, Justice Brewer filed in the circuit court his opinion 
refusing the injunction on the supplemental bill and entering 
an order dissolving the injunctions theretofore granted, at the 
cost of the complainants. The railroad companies made no 
further fight against the action of the Railroad Commissioners 
but acquiesced therein, and found the earnings of their several 
roads ''compensatory." 

Concurrent with this proceeding on the part of the North- 
western Railroad Company and the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy, and Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago, Rock Island 
& Pacific Railroad Company and the Burlington, Cedar 
Rapids & Northern applied to and obtained from Judge 
Fairall, of Iowa City, district judge of Johnson county, an in- 
junction against the Railroad Commissioners to the same ef- 
fect as that issued by Justice Brewer. I appeared with Mr. 
Lain before the district court and argued a motion to dissolve 
this injunction before Judge Fairall, which was refused, and 
from his order refusing to dissolve the injunction we at once 
took an appeal to the supreme court of Iowa. This appeal 
was heard and submitted to the supreme court by both printed 
and oral argument, but after the action of Justice Brewer upon 
the supplemental bill in the federal court, the attorneys for 
the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company and 
the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern dismissed their 
suit in the district court of Johnson county, and then applied 
to the supreme court for an order dismissing the appeal in 
that court. We resisted this application, but the court held 
that as the original suit was dismissed the injunction itself 
necessarily was dissolved, and as the appeal was only from an 
interlocutory order, the court had no occasion to deliver an 
opinion upon the merits of the controversy. The opinion of 
the court permitting these parties to dismiss their suit in this 
manner will be found in 76th Iowa, 278. 



146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Mr. A. B. Cummins, since Governor of the state of Iowa, 
has lately been posing as the original friend of the people in 
this fight against railroad injustice. It would be well to state 
here that I do not know when he became a convert to the im- 
portance of regulating the action of railroads in justice to the 
people, but as the foregoing was the fiirst great contest we had 
in Iowa on this subject, I give here a speech delivered by that 
gentleman as late as December 22, 1891, at a banquet of the 
Railroad Employees ' Club, as follows : 

It is the railroad, it is the spirit that has moved and stimulated 
that property which has made it possible to people in the valley of the 
Mississippi, wliich has made it possible to create within the limits of 
the United States a greater wealth than has any other nation on the 
face of the earth. I speak of the transportation industry as limited 
to railways, and so limited, it is instructive to reflect that the railways 
of the earth are now of the value of something near $33,000,000,000, 
an appalling sum that no human mind can appreciate, save when com- 
pared with some other species of property. The railways of the earth, 
without reckoning either "wind or water," are equal to one-tenth of 
all the property of the world. The railways represent substantially 
one-third of all the invested capital of mankind ; and if all the currency 
of the civilized world and its gold and all its silver and its currency 
in paper; all its precious stones, its diamonds and rubies were heaped 
together in such places as would contain them, they would still 
represent less than one-half of the railway property of the world. 
The comparisons indicate in what a stupendous enterprise you are 
now engaged. I have no disposition, whatever, to convert a single 
sentiment suggested by my brother Wallace, I do not recognize a con- 
flict between the farmers of the nation or the state of Iowa and the 
railways. No fair man ought to recognize any such conflict, but 
THAT THE STATE OF IOWA OR THAT HER ORGANIZED 
TRIBUNALS HAVE DONE INJUSTICE TO THE RAILWAYS 
AND THROUGH THEM TO THE RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, NO 
FAIR MINDED MAN CAN DISPUTE. These systems grew up; 
they most naturally fall into the hands best adapted to organize and 
handle them, and I would be the last man in the world to claim that, 
as they grew up, as they were systemized and organized, that wrong 
was not done here or wrong was not done there. I know too well that 



FREIGHT AND PASSENGER TARIFFS 147 

there were grievous complaints justly made against the management 
of railways not only in this state, but in many others. But I beg the 
people of Iowa to remember, and the railway employees to remember 
that, although railway managers and railway presidents may some- 
times be unjust, that affords no excuse whatever for the sovereign 
power of the state of Iowa in being unjust. The wrongs of capital 
produce, it is said, the anarchist — so it is with respect to the wrongs 
perpetrated by the railway companies, the railway organizations. 
They created a prejudice which, in its impetus, has carried the attack 
made upon the railway property far beyond what is justified by the 
sober second thought and judgment of those who instituted it, and far 
beyond the limits which the fair-minded people of Iowa now justify. 

The constitution of the United States in express terms 
gives to the congress of the United States the power to regu- 
late commerce between the states and with foreign nations. 
In pursuance of this power and duty imposed by the consti- 
tution, the congress of the United States in February, 1887, 
enacted a statute defining the duties and obligations of common 
carriers engaged in the transportation of freight and passen- 
gers between the states, and by express terms gave to the 
people a right of action in the federal courts against any rail- 
road company violating its duty as defined by the act. This 
right of action was by civil suit for such damages as inured 
to the party by reason of a wrongful act of a common carrier. 

The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company had a 
main line of road extending from Chicago, in the state of Illi- 
nois, located through the state of Iowa to Council Bluffs on the 
Missouri river. From the main line of this road at Carroll, in 
Carroll county, this company had constructed a number of 
branches running northwest from that point, known as the Sac 
City Branch and the Sioux City and Mapleton Branch. Dur- 
ing the year 1890 we brought a number of suits against the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company for unjust dis- 
crimination and overcharge for shipments of corn and oats 
from various points on these branch roads to Chicago, and 
also a number of suits for shipments made at Carroll and 
points west on the main line of its road. The cases for ship- 



148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

ments on the branch lines of its road were settled by the com- 
pany, and we collected for our clients about $75,000. Suits 
for shipments on the main line of its road were contested by 
the railroad company. We tried two of these cases before the 
United States circuit court at Des Moines, Judge Shiras pre- 
siding, and obtained verdicts and judgments in the causes. 
The railroad company took a writ of error to the United States 
court of appeals, and these causes were submitted to that 
court upon both oral and printed arguments at the May term, 
1892, of that court, sitting at St. Louis, Missouri. After the 
causes had been so submitted, Judge N. M. Hubbard who had 
made the argument in behalf of the railroad company, left St. 
Louis and went to Chicago for consultation with the general 
solicitor of that road, Mr. Goudy. After a few days, the court 
of appeals still being in session at St. Louis, Judge Hubbard 
appeared before the court, without any notice to me, and had 
the order submitting the causes set aside and dismissed his ap- 
peal or writ of error. After a few weeks had elapsed he sued 
out another writ of error in the same cases to the United 
States court of appeals, which, according to the arrangements 
for the sitting of that court, would be held at St. Paul in the 
state of Minnesota, and Justice Brewer of the supreme court 
of the United States would be in attendance as the presiding 
judge of that court. 

It would be too long and too tedious a story to enter into 
particulars in regard to these suits, and the questions of fact 
and law involved in them. The unusual and unwarranted con- 
duct of the attorneys for the Northwestern road in getting 
these cases before Justice Brewer for his decision and deter- 
mination was by no means a compliment to the judge for whom 
they manifested such a strong partiality. Neither would I 
indulge in any surmise as to the grounds for their partiality. 
It is sufficient to say they were not disappointed in the result 
and that Judge Brewer reversed both of these judgments. 

I afterward determined if possible to obtain the opinion of 
the supreme court of the United States upon the questions of 



FREIGHT AND PASSENGER TARIFFS 149 

law involved in these cases. I accordingly brought another 
suit for another client; to-wit, one E. M. Parsons, in a case in- 
volving an amount sufficient to entitle me to an appeal directly 
to the supreme court of the United States, having previously 
attempted to get the supreme court of the United States to re- 
view the decision of Justice Brewer in the former cases upon 
writs of certiorari, the same being denied by the supreme 
court. Judge Shiras, presiding in the circuit court at Des 
Moines, in view of the action of the circuit court of appeals in 
the other cases, sustained a demurrer pro forma to my 
amended petition filed in the Parsons case, and it was upon 
demurrer admitting the averments and allegations in this pe- 
tition that the case was heard before the supreme court of the 
United States. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion in the 
Parsons case in which he held that the statements of the peti- 
tion did not entitle the plaintiff to recovery. The opinion dis- 
closes the fact that Judge Brewer was somewhat offended at 
my attempt to have the supreme court pass upon the questions 
of law involved in the cases that he had disposed of as the pre- 
siding judge in the court or appeals. I had supposed that a 
judge of the supreme court of the United States would regard 
it rather as a compliment than otherwise to his sense of fair- 
ness to believe that he was capable of impartially and without 
prejudice, sitting with his brother judges, to review one of his 
own decisions, but the opinion shows plainly that I overesti- 
mated that distinguished jurist, and that he thought more of 
his infallibility than I did of his impartiality. This opinion 
of the court will be found in the case of Parsons vs. The Chi- 
cago & Northwestern Railroad Company in volume 167, United 
States Reports, 324. The court in this opinion asserts the 
very extraordinary position that the Interstate Commerce Law 
in providing a remedy whereby a shipper of grain might re- 
cover his actual damages for a refusal of the railroad company 
to comply with the law which was enacted for his protection, 
was in the nature of a penal statute, and that the petition of the 
plaintiff in such a case must expressly aver and negative the 



150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

existence of any possible excuse for the wrong committed by 
the railroad company. 

One great benefit to the public of these suits against the 
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company was to arouse 
public attention to the necessity of further legislation by con- 
gress in order to carry out the design of the original act for 
the protection of the public. Congress had already by amend- 
ment to the act provided for penalties against any parties vio- 
lating its provisions, but the suits that I brought were simply 
for actual damages and injuries, and not for any penalty what- 
ever under the law. The penal clause in the act as amended 
March 2, 1889, reads as follows : ' ' That any common carrier 
subject to the provisions of this act, or, wherever such common 
carrier is a corporation, any director or other officer thereof, 
or any receiver, trustee, lessee, agent, or person, acting for or 
employed by such corporation, who, alone or with any other 
corporation, company, person, or party, shall willfully do or 
cause to be done, or shall willfully suffer or permit to be done, 
any act, matter, or thing in this act prohibited or declared to 
be unlawful, or who shall aid or abet therein, or shall willfully 
omit or fail to do any act, matter, or thing in this act required 
to be done, or shall cause or willfully suffer or permit any act, 
matter or thing so directed or required by this act to be done 
not to be so done, or shall aid or abet in such omission or fail- 
ure, or shall be guilty of any infraction of this act, or shall aid 
or abet therein, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
shall, upon conviction thereof in any district court of the 
United States within the jurisdiction of which such offense 
was committed, be subject to a fine of not to exceed five thous- 
and dollars for each offense: Provided, that if the offense 
for which any person shall be convicted as aforesaid shall be an 
unlawful discrimination in rates, fares, charges, for transpor- 
tation of passengers or property, such person shall, in addi- 
tion to the fine herein provided for, be liable to imprisonment 
in the penitentiary for a term of not exceeding two years, or 
both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the 



FREIGHT AND PASSENGER TARIFFS 151 

court." The charge of Judge Shiras to the jury in the two 
cases tried before the United States circuit court, before re- 
ferred to, will be found in full in volume 48 of the Federal Re- 
porter, commencing on page 50, and the opinion of Justice 
Brewer, presiding in the circuit court of appeals, before re- 
ferred to, in which he reverses these judgments, will be found 
in the 10 U. S. court of appeals on page 430. 

It may be interesting to any law student and to anyone who 
desires to determine where right and justice should have pre- 
vailed, to compare the charge of Judge Shiras to the jury and 
the principles of law recognized by Judge Shiras, with the 
opinion of Justice Brewer. It is not within my purpose to re- 
argue any of my causes in this paper. 

It is sufficient to say that the supreme court held the pro- 
visions of the inter-state commerce law, that gave to shippers 
a remedy for unjust discrimination by a civil suit for damages, 
to be a penal statute upon the ground that if the railroad com- 
pany discriminated by charging one person ten dollars for a 
particular service and charged another person twenty dollars 
for a like service, then a suit to recover back the ten dollars 
thus unjustly demanded and received by the railroad company 
was in the nature of a statute to recover a penalty. Upon this 
mode of reasoning a suit against any person or corporation 
who unjustly and unlawfully gets possession of my money, for 
the purpose of recovering back what they illegally obtained, 
would come under the head of a suit to recover a penalty. The 
trouble with the supreme court of the United States has been 
that they have uniformly regarded this legislation by congress 
to protect the people against unjust charges and discrimina- 
tions as intended to punish the railroad companies of the 
country, and the court has felt called upon to protect the rail- 
roads from legislation interfering with their absolute control 
over their freight and passenger traffic. The court has as- 
sumed the role of a conservative element in the government, 
intended for the protection of railroad property against the 
legislative power of the country. 



CHAPTER XI 
Des Moines River Land Titles 

The next important litigation in which I was engaged dur- 
ing my professional career, of public interest, was my engage- 
ment by Roswell S. Burrows, one of the original stockholders 
of the Des Moines Navigation Company, in suits growing out 
of his ownership of certain lands belonging to the Des Moines 
river grants, so-called. I will not undertake in this paper to 
go into a detailed history of the Des Moines river titles, so- 
called. Colonel C. H. Gatch some years ago prepared for pub- 
lication a series of articles that were published in the Annals 
of Iowa, Volume I, that gives a detailed account and history 
of the land grant by congress, and the various decisions of 
the United States land department construing the original 
grant of 1846, and also the decision of the supreme court of 
the United States in the numerous cases from time to time 
decided by that court. I deem this the most correct and just 
account of this important litigation that has ever been given 
to the public. Honorable B. F. Gue also published in his 
History of Iowa what purports to be an account of the various 
decisions and rulings of the land department and of the ac- 
tions of the courts with reference to these lands. A part of 
his history is correct, but in treating of the rights of certain 
of the settlers he has done great injustice to the stockholders 
of the Des Moines Navigation Company who furnished the 
money to the company for the purchase of these lands. The 
first unwarranted statement contained in Mr. Gue 's history is 
that persons who brought and maintained suits for possession 
of their lands against certain settlers were mere speculators 
who had bought a doubtful title to these lands for a song. The 
contract between the state of Iowa and the Des Moines Navi- 



DES MOINES RIVER LAND TITLES 153 

gation Company, whereby that company became interested in 
certain lands of this grant, was made in 1853, after the state 
had disposed of the larger part of the lands lying below the 
Raccoon fork of the Des Moines river, and was made at a 
time when there was no question as to the right of the state 
to the lands above the Raccoon fork to the northern boundary 
of the state. Under this contract the company paid to the 
state, upon the execution of the agreement, over $60,000 in 
cash for the purpose of enabling the state to pay the indebted- 
ness that had been incurred by the board of public works up 
to that time. The contract provided that the company should 
continue the work under supervision of a state engineer and 
commissioner, chosen by the state of Iowa, and should ad- 
vance the money to pay, as the work progressed, a specific 
amount per cubic foot for stone work, excavation, timbers, and 
other material furnished in the construction of the locks and 
dams. Estimates were to be made from time to time by the 
engineer of the work of the amount expended by the company 
at the prices named in the contract, and as fast as $30,000 
was so expended the company was to receive lands at $1.25 
per acre. At the time this contract was made it had been 
found impossible to sell and dispose of the lands by the state 
commissioners rapidly enough to get money to pay the eon- 
tractors who theretofore had been doing the work under con- 
tracts with the commissioners. The only difference between 
the Des Moines Navigation Company and the contractors 
engaged in this work was that the former now agreed to 
furnish money in advance to pay off the old unpaid obliga- 
tions of the commissioners, and agreed to advance money as 
it was needed and take the lands in gross at $1.25 per acre as 
fast as each additional $30,000 were advanced and expended on 
the work. In the summer of 1857 the company made a demand 
on Mr. Manning, commissioner of the Des Moines River Im- 
provement, to certify to them additional lands on certain esti- 
mates made by the engineer, which Mr. Manning refused. 
They accordingly brought suit against the commissioner ask- 



154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

ing of the court a writ of mandamus to compel him to certify 
the lands shown to be due them by the certificate of the en- 
gineer. I have already referred to tliis suit in the former part 
of this paper. I was employed by Mr. Manning and defended 
against it upon the ground chiefly that before the company 
could maintain suit for specific performance it was necessary 
for them to show that they had in all respects complied with 
their various contract obligations toward the state. The main 
provision of the contract that the commissioner claimed had 
not been complied with related to the progress of the work; 
that is to say, one-fourth of the entire contemplated improve- 
ment between the Raccoon fork of the Des Moines river and 
the Mississippi river had not been completed. The company, 
being defeated in this application for mandamus, ceased work 
upon the improvement, and in the winter of 1858 a settlement 
was made between the state and the company. This settle- 
ment was more especially brought about by those who had 
organized a railroad company for the purpose of building a 
railroad from Keokuk up the valley of the Des Moines river. 
This organization was known as the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines 
& Minnesota Railroad Company, and they desired a grant 
from the state of the remaining lands of the grant to aid them 
in the construction of their railroad. The basis of the settle- 
ment between the state and the Des Moines Navigation Com- 
pany was simply that the company should receive a convey- 
ance from the state for the lands that had been certified to 
the state under the grant up to that time, and that had not 
been heretofore disposed of by the state, or certified to the 
company, amounting to about 37,500 acres, and should pay to 
the state $20,000 in addition to the money already paid and ex- 
pended on the improvement, and should surrender and cancel 
their contract and right to any further lands of the grant. 
(The terms of this settlement are contained in a joint resolu- 
tion of the seventh general assembly, found on page 425 of 
the acts of that session.) At the time of this settlement there 
was no question by anyone as to the extent of the grant and 



DES MOINES RIVER LAND TITLES 155 

the validity of the title of the state to the alternate sections 
five miles on either side of the river up to the northern bound- 
ary of the state. 

In pursuance of the settlement proposed by the joint reso- 
lution which was accepted by the company, Governor Lowe 
on May 3, 1858, executed fourteen deeds or patents to the 
Navigation Company, conveying by particular description the 
lands to which the company was entitled under the resolution 
of compromise ; and on May 18, 1858, a general deed convey- 
ing the same and any previously omitted lands by general 
description. 

Another disturbing element in regard to the title to the 
lands arose under the grant of congress made in 1856 to the 
state of Iowa, to aid in the construction of certain lines of 
railroad crossing the state and having their initial point at 
the Mississippi river, and crossing the Des Moines river at 
various points between the Raccoon fork and the northern 
boundary of the state. These railroad companies raised the 
question as to the validity of the title of the Des Moines Nav- 
igation Company to the lands they had purchased from the 
state north of the Raccoon fork of the river. The Dubuque 
& Sioux City Railroad Company brought suit, or rather in- 
duced Litclifield to bring suit against them for lands lying 
within the line of their grant under act of 1856, or rather that 
would have been within their grant if not reserved from its 
operation or that had not been granted for the improvement of 
the Des Moines river. This suit was adroitly managed on the 
part of the railroad company so as to avoid testing any ques- 
tion of its title, and contained a stipulation that the company 
was in possession of the land under their grant and the court 
was only called upon to decide the extent of the grant under 
the act of 1846 to the state for the improvement of the river, 
and the supreme court of the United States decided that the 
act of 1846 did not grant to the state for the improvement of 
the river any lands north of the Raccoon fork. This decision 
was made at the December term, 1859, and is found reported 



156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

in 23 Howard, S. C. U. S., page 66. The act of 1856, making 
the grant to the state for the purpose of aiding in the construc- 
tion of these railroads, in express terms reserved from the 
operation of the grant any lands that had been theretofore re- 
served by any competent authority under any other grant of 
congress. The announcement of this decision created con- 
siderable excitement in the Des Moines valley, and the river 
lands above the Eaccoon fork that had theretofore been deeded 
by the state to the Des Moines Navigation Company and had 
been by that company divided among its stockholders in con- 
sideration of the moneys that they had advanced to the com- 
pany, and had been paid by the company to the state as before 
stated, were considered the lawful prey of every adventurer 
who could induce the local land offices to allow them to locate 
a land warrant upon any of these lands. 

Another class of persons, however, were deeply interested 
in the question of this title. Prior to the contract made with 
the Des Moines Navigation Company the state of Iowa had 
sold some fifty thousand acres or more of these lands located 
above the Raccoon fork of the river, and many of these lands 
were occupied by actual settlers who had made improvements 
thereon and had paid the state valuable considerations for 
their title. To avoid the hardships that must otherwise have 
resulted from the decision of the supreme court, congress on 
March 2, 1861, passed the following joint resolution: ''Re- 
solved, that all the title which the United States still retain in 
the tracts of land along the Des Moines river, above the mouth 
of the Raccoon fork thereof, which have been certified to said 
state improper]}^ by the department of the interior as a part 
of the grant by act of congress approved August 8, 1846, and 
which are now held by bona fide purchasers under the state of 
Iowa, be, and the same is hereby relinquished to the state of 
Iowa. ' ' 

The congress of the United States further on the 12th of 
July, 1862, passed an act in express terms extending the grant 
to the northern boundary of the state, and providing that such 



DES MOINES RIVER LAND TITLES 157 

lands ''be held and applied in accordance with the provisions 
of the original grant, except that the consent of congress is 
hereby given to the application of a portion thereof to aid in 
the construction of the Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota 
Railroad, in accordance with the provisions of the act of the 
general assembly of the state of Iowa, approved March 22, 
1858." 

At the December term, 1866, the supreme court of the 
United States, in the case of Samuel Wolcott vs. The Des 
Moines Navigation Company, reported in 5 Wallace, page 681, 
made a further decision confirming the title of the Des Moines 
Navigation Company under the acts of congress of 1861-2, to 
the lands that had been deeded to them by the state of Iowa as 
before recited, and further deciding that the lands within the 
five mile limits of the Des Moines river had been reserved by 
competent authority for this work of internal improvement at 
the time of the passage of the railroad grant of 1856. 

Mr. Gue in his history of Iowa unfortunately attempts to 
disparage the title of the stockholders of the Des Moines Navi- 
gation Company by stating they were mere speculators who 
had purchased an impaired title, and were therefore entitled 
to no consideration. On the contrary, the men who received 
these deeds directly from the Des Moines Navigation Com- 
pany were stockholders who had advanced their money in pay- 
ment of their stock, which money had been paid over by that 
company directly to the state. 

Soon after the decision of the supreme court in the Litch- 
field case in 1859, a suit was lirought in the circuit court of the 
United States for the southern district of Iowa, asking an in- 
junction against the local United States land ofiicers at Fort 
Dodge and at Des Moines, to prevent them from receiving and 
recognizing any location or purchase of these reserved lands. 
The reservation of the land affected not only the lands within 
the railroad grant, but affected the right of any person to lo- 
cate upon or purchase these lands from the United States, as 
they were not lands subject to settlement or entry. Justice 



158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Miller heard this application for an injunction, and an argu- 
ment was filed by the authorities in Washington claiming that 
the proper officers of the land department had the sole 
authority to determine the question as to whether or not these 
lands were subject to location and entry, and that the question 
of the effect of such location and entry could only be decided 
by the courts, after entries were made and patents granted; 
that if the lands were not legally subject to entry as to any 
person claiming them, the action of the land officers would be 
void, and a court, if called upon by the owner, could cancel 
any patent or other evidence of title illegally issued. Justice 
Miller, after the full argument of the case, sustained this view 
of the case and held that the only remedy for parties claiming 
these lands under the act of 1846, and the subsequent act of 
1861-2, was to apply to the court for the cancellation of any 
titles wrongfully issued by the land department or by the 
President. In accordance with this view of the case a number 
of suits were brought by the grantees of the Des Moines Navi- 
gation Company, who received their titles from the company 
in consideration of the moneys they had advanced as stock- 
holders, and the supreme court of the United States, upon 
appeal to that court, cancelled a number of entries and patents 
that had been wrongfully issued. An attempt was made to 
make a distinction between the Des Moines Navigation Com- 
pany and individuals who had purchased the lands from the 
state of Iowa, and settled thereon. 

Mr. Gue in his history of Iowa claims that the act of con- 
gress of 1861 was only intended for the protection of those 
purchasers from the state who had actually settled upon their 
lands and made improvements thereon, and that congress in 
using the words ''bona fide purchasers from the state of Iowa" 
did not include in those words citizens or residents of the state 
of New York who had bought their lands in good faith from 
the state of Iowa. The supreme court of the United States in 
the very purpose of its organization was intended by the con- 
stitution to organize a judicial body or tribunal before which 



DES MOINES RIVER LAND TITLES 159 

all citizens of the United States should be equal before the law, 
without regard to the state in which they had their residence or 
location. There was no question about the fact that the Des 
Moines Navigation Company was a bona fide purchaser of 
these lands. At the time that they paid their money and took 
a conveyance from the state of Iowa, the stockholders of that 
company honestly believed they were getting a good and per- 
fect title and were paying out their money for same in the 
utmost good faith. The statement of Mr. Gue in his history 
before referred to, that the persons who received deeds for 
these lands from the Des Moines Navigation Company were 
mere speculators, purchasing for a song a doubtful and dis- 
puted title, is wholly without foundation and fact, and the de- 
nunciation of the supreme court of the United States because 
the court made no distinction between bona fide purchasers 
because of their location or residence, very greatly mars the 
reliability and impartiality that ought to have been character- 
istic of this history of Iowa. Mr. Gue was a resident of Fort 
Dodge, where for years the atmosphere of that locality was 
permeated by the passion of men who had been disappointed 
in their attempt to secure a title to lands that they all knew 
before and at the time of the location and attempted entry on 
the same, had already been sold for a valuable consideration 
by the state of Iowa. The opinion of the supreme court, de- 
livered by Justice Miller in the case of Williams vs. Baker, 
reported in 17 Wallace, 144, contains an accurate and clear 
exposition of this entire controversy, which fortunately was 
settled by the supreme court of the United States, and to which 
they have continuously and consistently adhered. Long after 
the diversion of the remaining lands of this grant to the 
Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad Company, 
the Iowa Homestead Company, grantee of the Dubuque & 
Sioux City Railroad Company brought suit for a portion of 
these lands embraced in the river grant above the Raccoon 
fork, and attempted to disturb the title. In the meantime the 
Keokuk, Fort Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad Company had 



160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

mortgaged these lands for the purpose of continuing their road 
from Des Moines to Fort Dodge. On the foreclosure of this 
mortgage these remaining lands were sold to a company known 
as the Des Moines & Fort Dodge Railroad Company, organized 
for the purpose of owning and operating that portion of the 
old Des Moines Valley road that had been constructed between 
Des Moines and Fort Dodge. On the foreclosure of this mort- 
gage I had represented Martin Flynn and a number of the 
other contractors, for whom I had filed a mechanics' lien for 
work done and material furnished in the construction of the 
road north of Gowrie. I succeeded in obtaining a provision in 
the decree of foreclosure making these liens paramount to that 
of the mortgage, and when the road was purchased by the new 
organization called the Des Moines & Fort Dodge Railroad 
Company they were compelled to pay off Flynn and these other 
lien holders in order to secure their title. This new railroad 
organization elected Mr. Charles Whitehead, an attorney of 
New York City, its president, and I received from Mr. White- 
head a telegram asking if I could be retained as general at- 
torney of their road. I replied that upon the receipt of a draft 
for five hundred dollars I would accept of the same as a gen- 
eral retainer. One object, I think, that the company had in 
desiring my services was to secure some one familiar with the 
question of the title of these Des Moines river lands that the 
new organization had bought in connection with this other 
part of the road. 

The last contest over the title was the case of the Iowa 
Homestead Company claiming the title under the railroad 
grant of 1856. It was the case of the Iowa Homestead vs. The 
Des Moines & Fort Dodge Railroad Company, reported in 17 
Wallace, 84. Mr. Gue, in his history of Iowa, makes a special 
point as to the hardship visited on one of the settlers by the 
name of Crilley. I was attorney for Mr. Burrows in that 
case. Mr. Crilley first attempted to locate a warrant upon a 
tract of land near Fort Dodge prior to the decision of the 
supreme court of the United States in the Striker case. He 



I 



DES MOINES RIVER LAND TITLES 161 

was refused permission to make any such location or entry 
and was distinctly informed by the local land officers that the 
lands belonged to the Des Moines river grant. After the de- 
cision in the Striker case in 1859 and after the settlement 
between the state of Iowa and the Des Moines Navigation 
Company and the payment of the last $20,000 of the considera- 
tion, and after the execution of the deeds and patents by the 
state to the Des Moines Navigation Company, Crilley suc- 
ceeded in inducing the local land officers to allow his location, 
and ultimately obtained a patent through their influence, 
signed by the President, The circuit court of the United 
States declared his patent void and decreed cancellation of the 
same. He took his appeal to the supreme court at Washing- 
ton and that court affirmed the decree. The judges of the 
circuit court at Des Moines permitted Mr. Crilley, by his at- 
torney, then to file a claim for his improvements under the 
occupying claimant law of Iowa. Commissioners were ap- 
pointed and his improvements were valued at a very liberal 
amount, far in excess of their real value or cost. Mr. Bur- 
rows paid the money into court and Crilley received the same, 
but after he received pay for his improvements he still refused 
to vacate the land. A writ was issued to dispossess him, and 
upon the service of the writ by the United States marshal, 
Mr. Crilley presented a loaded revolver to the deputy marshal 
and threatened his life. The marshal thereupon returned to 
Des Moines and secured authority to arrest Mr. Crilley, which 
he did, and Mr. CriUey was actually detained in prison for 
several weeks and until he agreed peaceably to surrender pos- 
session of the land. This is the whole story of the inhumanity 
out of which Mr. Gue's history of Iowa makes a case of such 
extreme cruelty and hardship. 

That this controversy over the title of the Des Moines 
river grant was a most unfortunate one, both for those who 
purchased the lands from the state and those who attempted 
to purchase them from the general government after the state 
had sold them, there can be no question. It was also very 



162 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

detrimental to the settlement of that part of the state. The 
squatters or settlers made very indifferent improvements and 
very indifferent cultivation of the land, and seldom if ever 
paid any taxes. After the title of the Des Moines Navigation 
Company and its stockholders and grantees had become fully 
settled, the counties where these lands were located levied 
taxes upon the same, and suits were brought against the Des 
Moines Navigation Company and its grantees. The supreme 
court of Iowa held that from the date of the joint resolution 
of 1861 the title to these lands inured to and became perfect 
in those who had purchased and taken their deeds from the 
Des Moines Navigation Company, and held them liable for the 
taxes that had been assessed from the date of that joint reso- 
lution of 1861. 

I continued to act as attorney for the Des Moines & Fort 
Dodge Railroad Company for about ten years. I was not, 
however, employed upon a salary, but only after my general 
retainer charged that company from time to time for services 
actually rendered, and charged them as I did any other client. 



CHAPTER XII 

A. 0. U. W. CONTROVEBSY 

One other case of some notoriety and public interest in 
which I was engaged in the latter years of my practice was the 
controversy between the two branches of the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen. It seems that the Grand Lodge of this 
organization had adopted an amendment to their plan of or- 
ganization by which in case of extraordinary loss and liability 
occurring in any locality, and within the jurisdiction of some 
subordinate state lodge, the members of lodges in other states 
might be assessed and required to contribute for the payment 
of such extraordinary losses. A portion of the members in 
the state of Iowa refused to recognize this requisition aad se- 
ceded from the organization as a national body, and organized 
another state lodge by the same name, Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and incorporated themselves under the general pro- 
visions of the law of Iowa for the organization of benevolent 
societies, repudiating any connection with the national lodge. 
Those who adhered to the national organization still continued, 
however, to do business by their old name and under their 
former organization as adherents of the national body. The 
new organization, relying upon their incorporation as giving 
them some special advantage, brought suit in the district court 
of Dubuque county for an injunction against this old organiza- 
tion adhering to the national body, and sought to perpetually 
enjoin them from the use of the name '^ Ancient Order of 
United Workmen," or the initials '*A. 0. U. W." Upon the 
trial of this case on demurrer in the district court in Dubuque, 
I sought to obtain a continuance of the hearing on the ground 
of my ill health, having been confined to my room and my bed 
for some three weeks. The judge of the district court granted 



164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

a continuance only for a few days. I went to Dubuque, how- 
ever, and made a three hours' argument in the case, sitting 
in my chair, not having strength to stand upon my feet. The 
court granted a perpetual injunction against my client. An 
appeal was taken immediately to the supreme court and an 
interlocutory order obtained staying the injunction until the 
case could be heard in that court. On the final hearing and 
trial the injunction was dissolved, and the right of my client 
to use and do business under the title of "Ancient Order of 
United Workmen" was successfully maintained. This de- 
cision is fully reported in supreme court reports, 96 Iowa, 592. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Important Events in Caeeeb 

It will be necessary now to go back a few years in order to 
record certain events important in my personal career. 

In the summer of 1880 James A. Garfield received from the 
republican national convention at Chicago the nomination as 
candidate for President of the United States. At that time 
the states of Indiana and Ohio continued to hold their 
state elections early in the month of October, and the result 
of the elections in those two states in October had a most im- 
portant and almost controlling influence upon the result of the 
presidential contest at the ensuing November election. 

Early in September of that year I received from the state 
central committee of the state of Indiana an invitation to ac- 
company ex-Governor Kirkwood of Iowa in a canvassing tour 
of two weeks, which invitation I accepted. We had a very 
agreeable and enjoyable trip. Governor Kirkwood was a very 
companionable man and was received with much honor and 
enthusiasm, and our meetings were largely attended and were 
quite successful. Part of the time we did not speak together 
at the same meetings, but had separate appointments assigned 
us. At one point where there existed a considerable manu- 
facturing industry, the local committee waited upon us at our 
hotel before the speaking, and suggested that they desired us 
to especially discuss the tariff question and its effect upon 
our American manufacturers. After the committee had re- 
tired Governor Kirkwood walked the floor of the room for a 
few minutes, and turning suddenly upon me he said, * ' Charlie, 
do you understand this tariff question? ' ' I told him no, I knew 
very little about it. ''Well," he said, "I was raised a demo- 
crat and am not much of a tariff man anyhow, and I want you 



166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

to take up this tariff question if either of us must." I told 
him that I could talk about the general effect of protecting 
American labor and the duty of the American congress to so 
arrange the tariff upon imports as to relieve our people from 
competition with the low wages paid in Europe; that the 
American laborer must receive higher wages than the Euro- 
pean laborer for he must educate his children and must enjoy 
better conditions in life, and as our free institutions were 
based upon the intelligence of the voter, we could not afford 
to allow the laboring man to occupy the position socially or 
politically of the European laborer; that I could talk along 
that line all they wanted, but when it came to discussing 
schedules or specific duties I should not venture upon any such 
discourse; in fact, I was satisfied that few people understood 
the subject sufficiently to discuss the detail of tariff duties with 
intelligence. I filled the bill accordingly, as Governor Kirk- 
wood placed that part of the program in my charge, but he 
himself did not say ''tariff" once. 

At Indianapolis we attended a grand rally at which Eoscoe 
Conkling, of New York, was the principal orator of the day. 
The managers had arranged for a grand parade, and the Gov- 
ernor with myself and several other gentlemen were assigned 
to a carriage that was to take prominent part in the proces- 
sion. Conkling had arrived, it seems, early in the day, and the 
procession was delayed for over an hour waiting for that dis- 
tinguished gentleman to complete his toilet before making his 
appearance in public. The streets and the balcony of the hotel 
were lined with ladies in their holiday attire, and as the pro- 
cession passed by we heard frequent inquiries from the finely 
dressed maidens as to which was Conkling, and when he was 
pointed out to them they were enthusiastic in their declara- 
tions that he was a handsome man. I was introduced to Mr. 
Conkling in the corridor of the hotel, after his speech, and was 
shocked and surprised at his want of courtesy and decent man- 
ners. He was there for the purpose of advocating the election 
of Mr. Garfield, and adding if possible enthusiasm to the occa- 



IMPORTANT EVENTS IN CAREER 167 

sion, and yet openly in the hearing of the crowd he was cursing 
the folly of the convention in nominating Mr. Garfield instead 
of renominating Grant for the third term. A more arrogant 
and conceited public man it has never been my misfortune to 
meet. 

An incident occurred the following Sunday morning more 
pleasant to record. I got up very early, and going down to the 
lower portico of the hotel I found a few persons astir. I felt 
somewhat lonesome and seeing a well dressed, intelligent look- 
ing colored man on the pavement, I entered into conversation 
with him in regard to the political situation, and asked him 
whether or not the colored men of the city would not all sup- 
port Mr. Garfield, the republican nominee. To my surprise he 
said, ^ ' No, sah, some of them will vote the democratic ticket. ' ' 
I said to him, "How is it possible for a colored man to support 
the democratic ticket in view of the history of the past twenty- 
five years? The colored race have been emancipated and en- 
franchised and made equal before the law through the efforts 
of the republican party of the nation. How, then, can any of 
your people support the democratic party?" "Well, sah," 
said he, "in some respects a colored man is very much like a 
white man. ' ' Said I, ' ' What do you mean by that ? " " Well, 
sah," said he, "I'll tell you. Occasionally, sah, you will find 
a colored man that is a damn fool." I saw a twinkle in his 
eye and realized that he was intending his reply for a joke. 
I immediately offered him my hand and shook hands with him 
heartily, telling him that since there were so many white men 
of that kind I supposed it would be unreasonable not to expect 
occasionally a colored man that was a fool. 

Upon my return to Iowa after the October election in Indi- 
ana I made a speech in the opera house at Oskaloosa, Iowa, 
and the gallery was filled with colored men, many of them from 
What Cheer, a mining district near Oskaloosa. I related to 
them the particulars of my interview with the colored gentle- 
man of Indianapolis. They enjoyed it hugely and gave me 
rounds of applause, and I told them I hoped that in some re- 



168 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

spects they would not be like the few that were back in Indiana. 

After the election of Mr. Garfield, Governor Kirkwood was 
appointed Secretary of the Interior, and as I had official busi- 
ness before the supreme court that summer I visited Washing- 
ton City in company with my wife, and spent a pleasant two 
weeks admiring the wonders of the national capital. Bishop 
Andrews, of the Methodist Episcopal church, had been for a 
number of years a resident of Des Moines and our near neigh- 
bor on Fourth street, and in company with his excellent wife 
Mrs. Nourse had a very enjoyable time. Governor Kirkwood 
also arranged that we should attend a private reception of the 
President and his wife, and Mrs. Nourse enjoyed the privilege 
of quite a tete a tete with the President's lady, officially known 
as the first lady of the land. When my wife bid her good even- 
ing she shook hands with her and expressed the hope that she 
would be very happy in her new position. Mrs. Garfield was 
rather a sad faced person and responded in a tone almost 
prophetic, ''I hope so. We do not know." Afterwards upon 
the assassination of Mr. Garfield I was called upon to take part 
in a meeting held in the Baptist church in Des Moines, com- 
memorating the memory of that excellent man. I found in my 
wife's scrap book some years afterwards a newspaper clipping 
containing a report of the remarks I made on that occasion 
which I here insert : 

For the past five days our nation has been in mourning and the 
Christian civilization of the world has sympathized with us in our 
bereavement. By official proclamations, by public meetings and reso- 
lutions, by draping our homes and places of business and houses of 
worship with the emblems of mourning, we have sought to give ex- 
pression to our sorrow and to testify our appreciation of our noble 
dead. 

Tomorrow the whole nation is to attend upon his burial and the 
iday is set apart as sacred to his memory. And yet with all this we 
cannot restore the fife that has been so wantonly destroyed. Death is 
inexorable, and we can do nothing for him who has gone out from the 
shores of time forever. 

But in a better sense of the word Garfield is not dead. So long 



IMPORTANT EVENTS IN CAREER 169 

as we cherish the manly virtues of which his life was the exponent, so 
long as we remember the trials and sacrifices of his boyhood, the labors 
and successes of his riper years, the heroism, faith, fidelity of his life, 
and the calm triumphant heroism of his death, so long will he live to 
us and to the nation, and so long may we be profited by his life. 

I can think of no better text this morning for profitable consider- 
ation than one of the many rich gems of thought he has left us out of 
the storehouse of this great heart and intellect. At the graves of the 
fallen heroes of the late war he expressed this sentiment, ' ' I love to be- 
lieve that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the characters of men are 
molded and inspired by what their fathers have done, that treasured 
up in American souls are all the unconscious influences of the great 
deeds of the Anglo Saxon race, from Agincourt to Bunker Hill." 

In the oldest book of the Book of Books the patient man in his 
deep affliction asks the question, " If a man dies shall he live again ? ' ' 
This question refers primarily to man 's immortality, but we may dwell 
upon it in its other meaning, this morning, as relating to the silent and 
unconscious power and influence of the life and example of the one 
whom we say is dead. 

And think what a treasure we have in the memory of this man. 
Others have challenged the admiration of the world because of their 
great abilities. Others have been brave in war and wise in counsel. 
Others have been heroes and statesmen, and we have honored them and 
done homage to their greatness, but this man was not only great and 
wise and brave, but a good, true and pure man also, and the nation 
loved him. We give honor to his greatness, we give the tribute of 
praise to his great abilities and his great achievements, but we bring 
tears and heart throbs to the tomb where manly virtue, purity, and 
faith are to be enshrined. How much there is in the life of this man 
that we would wish to bring into the everyday life of our homes. Here 
is the model of a life from which we would have our children mold 
their own future, no blemishes to record, nothing to apologize for, 
nothing to cover up — it stands out in its moral perfection and beauty 
— in its intellectual strength and greatness — in its religious faith 
and fervor, a fully developed manhood — a complete character — a 
perfect pattern. 

Do you want an inspiration for your child? Repeat to him the 
story of this man's youth, of his struggle with poverty and adversity, 
without influential friends or fortune. Do you want to teach the 



170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

young men of the nation the value of sincerity, honesty, earnestness, 
and truthfulness in the affairs of life ? Here is the demonstration and 
the proof that even in American politics and American statesman- 
ship, dishonesty, deceit, and duplicity are not necessary to success. 
Do you want to rebuke the conceit of the would-be learned who teach 
our young men that the religious faith that their mothers taught them 
is somehow a reproach to their intellectual progress — we have here a 
man of the broadest culture, of the strongest intellectual grasp and 
development, whose religious faith was the very basis and strength of 
his greatness and intellectual power. 



CHAPTER XIV 
The Brown Impeachment Case 

The discussion of law cases and the questions of fact and of 
law that they involved may be a little tedious to a non-profes- 
sional reader, but they constituted so large a part in my life 
that it is impossible to give much of an account of myself and 
what I have been doing for so many years past, without at least 
a brief account of the nature of the suits in which I was en- 
gaged as counsel. 

Probably the most important case in which I was engaged 
during my professional career was the celebrated impeachment 
case against John L. Brown, Auditor of the state of Iowa. 

Mr. Brown was first elected to the office of Auditor of State 
in October, 1882, and took his office the following January. 
One of the important duties of this office was the duty of hav- 
ing the insurance companies, organized under the laws of Iowa 
and doing business in the state, examined from time to time to 
ascertain if they complied strictly with the law, and if their 
reports made to his office were just and true, and their business 
conducted in such a manner as to insure their solvency and 
ability to pay the losses of their policy holders. There had 
been in the state of Iowa for a number of years a number of 
failures of companies that were organized without capital and 
without experience or strict integrity upon the part of those 
who sought to insure the property of others, some of them hav- 
ing none of their own. I remember one insurance company 
organized in Des Moines by an enterprising young lawyer, 
without means, who obtained the names of a number of persons 
that he claimed had subscribed stock to his company. The law 
required twenty-five per cent of this stock to be paid up before 
the company was entitled to do business. The gentleman, of 



172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

course, elected himself president of the company, and he drew 
his drafts upon the supposed subscribers to stock for the 
twenty-five per cent that the law required should be paid up, 
to constitute the capital of the company. He took these drafts 
to B. F. Allen, then a prominent banker in western Iowa and 
doing business in Des Moines, and deposited his drafts and 
obtained from Allen a certificate of deposit for so much money. 
This he exhibited to the Auditor of State, and upon the faith 
of this certificate of deposit obtained authority to transact 
business. His drafts were all dishonored so that he was pro- 
ceeding to do business without any capital whatever, and ac- 
tually issued some policies. It was only necessary to incur a 
loss to complete the bankruptcy of the concern. Of course 
the foregoing is an extreme case, but it illustrates how easily 
the law was evaded and how absolutely necessary it was to 
have a strict supervision of these companies that could incor- 
porate themselves under the general insurance company laws 
of the state. 

Mr. Brown had been a soldier in the Civil War and had 
lost an arm in its service, was very upright, and a downright 
man, and did not depend upon his suavity of manner for his 
success in life. He was a man of quick temper and abrupt 
manners, but was sensitive of his honor and at all times con- 
scious of his integrity of purpose. In pursuance of his official 
duty he felt the necessity of strict supervision and a thorough 
examination of the insurance companies of the state, that had 
sprung up in almost every important town and city in the state, 
and the officers and directors of the different companies were 
not paying much attention to the detail of the affairs of their 
companies and would generally entrust the business to the 
persons who had organized the company and become its presi- 
dent and secretary. In selecting a person who could make 
these examinations with fidelity and thoroughness he deemed 
it necessary to engage some one who was not a resident of the 
state and who would not probably be influenced by local or 
political consideration in the discharge of his duties. He em- 



THE BROWN IMPEACHMENT CASE 173 

ployed as chief examiner of these companies a gentleman who 
resided in Chicago, and whose reputation was beyond ques- 
tion as an expert, by the name of H. S. Vail. This gentleman 
charged for his services twenty-five dollars a day for the time 
actually engaged, and in addition thereto some five to ten dol- 
lars for assistant accountants. The law provided that the ex- 
penses of these investigations should be approved by the 
Auditor, and upon his certificate the several companies ex- 
amined were required to pay the bill. These examinations 
proved to be very expensive in some cases, and perhaps in a 
few cases an unnecessary burden and expense to the com- 
panies, but the real cause of complaint was that the expert 
found many irregularities, and without fear or favor, report- 
ed them in writing to the Auditor for his action. In one case 
the president of an insurance company had been electing his 
board of directors by stock issued to himself, upon which he 
had not paid a dollar into his treasury, and was paying him- 
self out of the limited income of the company the handsome 
sum of ten thousand dollars a year as president, and his son- 
in-law three thousand dollars a year as attorney of the com- 
pany. In a number of cases the president of the company 
was found to have issued to himself stock upon which he had 
not paid a dollar, and the Auditor required all of these and 
many other like delinquencies to be corrected. 

He was visited by the friends and attorneys of these offi- 
cers who were thus disturbed in their operations, and the 
Auditor was not found to be a very complacent or accommodat- 
ing individual, but on the contrary an outspoken, determined, 
and unyielding man in the discharge of what he conceived to 
be his duties. The last resource of these afflicted insurance 
officers was an appeal to Buren R. Sherman, then Governor 
of Iowa, formerly filling the office of Auditor of State and 
under whose administration these insurance men had been 
undisturbed. He found Mr. Brown equally obdurate and un- 
willing to palliate or in any way overlook the delinquencies 
of these insurance companies, but he determined to afford his 



174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

friends some relief, and upon the re-election of Mr. Brown as 
Auditor of State in the fall of 1884, he sought an excuse for 
refusing to approve of the official bond that Mr. Brown pre- 
sented to him and which was necessary to the qualification 
of the Auditor for his second term of office. The first pre- 
tense of Sherman for refusing to approve the Auditor's bond 
was that Mr. Brown had not complied with the law in making 
report to the Treasurer of State as the law required of the 
fees of his office. As it turned out in the evidence on the 
trial, and as Sherman well knew the fact to be, the fees of the 
office had been reported and accounted for as the statute re- 
quired, save only that the aggregate amount of the fees as 
shown by the fee-book in the Auditor's office had been re- 
ported and accounted for at the end of each month, and the 
details specifying from what source each item was received 
was not copied from the fee-book in the Auditor's office and 
filed with the State Treasurer. In addition to this the Gov- 
ernor also obtained information from a discharged clerk in 
the Auditor's office that the clerks in the office frequently 
received compensation of small sums for giving information 
and collecting statistical matter at the request of individuals 
where no official duty was enjoined by law upon the Auditor 
or his assistants and no fee was prescribed. As no account 
was kept of these small sums of money and they were paid 
to the clerk who did the voluntary work for persons request- 
ing it, no statement could be made of the amounts or dates, or 
the services rendered. 

In the meantime the controversy spread, the insurance 
companies through their officers and agents taking an active 
part as against Mr. Brown, and Mr. Sherman becoming more 
and more arrogant. He finally determined to remove Mr. 
Brown from office. 

We had upon the statute book a law whereby the Governor 
of the state was authorized to suspend a subordinate officer, 
if indeed there was any such thing as a subordinate officer 
under our constitution, by appointing a commission to exam- 



THE BROWN IMPEACHMENT CASE 175 

ine his books and papers and the affairs of his office, and if, 
upon making such report to the Governor, it was apparent 
that the public safety required a suspension of the officer 
from official duties, he might issue such order of suspension. 
Sherman found three men willing to do his bidding in this 
respect and appointed them commissioners to examine the 
affairs of all the state officers. The commissioners under- 
stood that this meant only Brown and meant only that they 
should put into form Sherman's side of his controversy with 
the Auditor. The committee accordingly performed what 
was required of them and reported to the Governor that the 
public safety and public good required the suspension of the 
Auditor. They reported no facts in addition to those already 
recited in regard to the money received by the clerks in the 
office for matters outside of their official duties, save and 
except fees paid by certain banks for bank examinations under 
the law, for which no fee was provided by law, and which they 
advised the Governor that the Attorney General claimed did 
not belong to the state treasury, but were illegally charged 
and paid. They also informed the Governor that in the year 
of 1883, the correspondence notifying the Auditor of the re- 
quirements of the insurance companies in regard to the ap- 
pointment of agents had been destroyed. As all of these ap- 
pointments were matters of record and the fees for their 
issuing were also regularly entered upon the books of the 
Auditor, this was one of the extraordinary finds of this extra- 
ordinary committee. They also advised the Governor in this 
report that the law required the reports of fees should be 
sworn to, and their interpretation of the law was that the 
Auditor himself should have made the affidavit, and instead 
thereof it was made by a clerk in the office. 

Upon this remarkable report of this remarkable commis- 
sion Sherman at once made an order, not suspending but 
removing Mr. Brown from office, and appointing J. W. Cat- 
tell, formerly Auditor of State, to take his place. Mr. Cattell 
was in no very great haste to do this, but after the order was 



176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

served by the sheriff upon Mr. Brown he very wisely entered 
into a negotiation with Brown to see if the diflQculty could 
not in some way be adjusted, and have Brown make such re- 
ports to the Governor as would be satisfactory. Mr. Cattell 
was an honorable and honest man, and really desired that 
these matters should be satisfactorily arranged, but this was 
not the purpose of the Governor as manifested by his conduct, 
and he determined to have his own way. He accordingly 
filed information before a justice of the peace accusing Brown 
of a misdemeanor in holding the office after his order of sus- 
pension or removal, and upon this affidavit he obtained a 
warrant for the arrest of Mr. Brown. The constable served 
the warrant upon Brown, and Mr. Brown was about to give 
bond for his appearance to answer the charge, when the Gov- 
ernor, having previously ordered and arranged with the Adju- 
tant General so to do, appeared with an armed force of the 
Governor's Guards, so-called, who, with set bayonets and 
loaded muskets took charge of the Auditor's office. Hearing 
that something of an extraordinary nature was transpiring 
at the capitol, I left my office and went over to the state house 
to see what could be done for my client, and was proceeding 
to the Auditor's office when I was stopped by two of the sol- 
diers crossing bayonets in front of me, one of them cocking 
his rifle and threatening to shoot me if I proceeded any fur- 
ther. Fortunately the captain commanding the squad had a 
little sense left and told the soldier to put up his gun, and so 
my life was saved. The Governor in addition to the use of the 
militia as above recited, also employed ex-Governor William 
M. Stone to assist Mr. Galusha Parsons, and they filed a peti- 
tion in the name of Jonathan W. Cattell agaiiist John L. Brown 
in the district court of Polk county under the provision of the 
statute for proceedings in ' ' quo warranto ' ' by which the right 
and title to an office could be tested. We were fortunate in 
having for district judge at that time William Connor, a good 
lawyer and an honest man. Mr. Parsons and Governor Stone 
attempted upon the presentation of their petition to get some 



THE BROWN IMPEACHMENT CASE 177 

peremptory order for the removal of Mr. Brown from ofifice, 
but the court called their attention to the express provision 
of the statute that he had no authority to miake any order in 
the premises until the final trial, and that the case must go 
upon the docket and be tried upon its merits before any order 
or removal could be made. Upon the impeachment trial Sher- 
man under oath denied that he had employed counsel to com- 
mence this suit, and Mr. Cattell testified that he had nothing 
to do with the employment of any counsel to bring the suit. 
The suit was finally dismissed, nobody appearing to care about 
any investigation of the merits of the proceeding. We accord- 
ingly had Mr. Brown, who had given bail, surrender himself 
to his bondsmen, and we applied to the supreme court of the 
state, then sitting at Davenport, for a writ of habeas corpus 
to test the constitutionality of the statute under which, with- 
out trial and without investigation and without hearing, the 
Governor had attempted to deprive Mr. Brown of his office. 
The supreme court decided this case at the Dubuque term in 
1885, Seevers, judge, delivering a dissenting opinion, and 
Beck, judge, taking no part in the decision as he was not pres- 
ent at the submission of the cause. Adams, judge, delivered 
the opinion of the three remaining judges; to-wit, himself, 
Rothrock, and Reed. The majority of the court held that the 
law under which the Governor acted did not authorize any re- 
moval from office, and that it was only constitutional upon the 
hypothesis that Brown should have a hearing and trial. The 
dissenting opinion of Judge Seevers holds that as the law 
made no provision for any hearing or trial, and the suspension 
was for an indefinite time and might at the pleasure of the 
Governor be perpetual, it was therefore void and did not 
authorize the proceedings. Thus matters stood until the fall 
of the year 1885, when the people elected William Larrabee 
as Governor instead of Sherman, whose term of office would 
expire on the first of January ensuing. 

The presumption indulged in by the majority of the court 
in its opinion that Mr. Brown's removal from office was only 



178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

a temporary suspension, and that the Governor certainly 
would give him a hearing as to the matters complained of and 
found by the special commision, is made to appear more absurd 
by the subsequent action of Mr. Sherman himself, who, on the 
9th of December, 1885, made the following entry in the execu- 
tive journal, and assumed to appoint J. W. Cattell to fill what 
he was pleased to call a vacancy in the office of the Auditor of 
State. The entry is as follows: 

December, 9, 1885. 
Whereas, at the general election held on the 4th day of November, 

1884, J. L. Brown was re-elected to the office of Auditor of State ; and 
Whereas, the said J. L, Brown, re-elected as aforesaid, neglected 

and refused to qualify as such re-elected officer, and because thereof his 
official bond as such officer was not approved nor filed, and continued 
in such refusal until the 3rd day of March, 1885, and unto this time, 
and on account thereof on the day last aforesaid Jonathan W. Cattell 
was duly appointed as Auditor of State and immediately qualified by 
giving bond and taking the oath of office as required by law, which 
said bond was duly approved according to law ; and 

Whereas, at the general election held on the 3rd day of November, 

1885, there was no person elected to the said office of Auditor of State, 
as ascertained by the official canvass this day concluded by the state 
board of canvassers ; and 

Whereas, it is incumbent upon me to fill the vacancy in said office 
now held under appointment; therefore 

Jonathan W. Cattell is hereby appointed Auditor of State, to have 
and to hold the same until the next general election in November, 1886 ; 
and upon his qualifying thereto by giving bond and taking the oath 
of office, as required by law, he will be obeyed and respected accord- 
ingly. BuBEN R. Sherman 

A legislature was elected that fall, and as the only oppor- 
tunity for a hearing and a vindication of Mr. Brown, he sent 
a communication to the house of representatives requesting an 
investigation and an impeachment, to the end that he might 
have a trial before the senate. 

The insurance agents of the state who had been wounded 
by the investigation of their affairs, Sherman and his political 



THE BROWN IMPEACHMENT CASE 179 

adherents filled the lobbies of the legislature, and were anxious 
also for Brown's impeachment. Finally the house of repre- 
sentatives brought in articles of impeachment, containing 
thirty counts, and the senate ordered Mr. Brown arrested and 
brought before them for trial. As I had been Mr. Brown's 
counsel throughout all of these difficulties, he came to me for 
aid and wished me to act as his counsel. In the meantime he 
had received a number of letters from ''Tom, Dick, and 
Harry" throughout the state, lawyers who wished to do some 
cheap advertising of themselves, offering to attend to his case 
without compensation. I told Mr. Brown that I would under- 
take his case on condition that I might select my own assis- 
tants. I realized that the court, to-wit, the fifty senators then 
entitled to seats in the senate, was of rather peculiar construc- 
tion. We had in the first place a large majority of republi- 
cans, but we also had a number of very able and influential 
democrats in the senate. We had some Germans and some 
opposed to prohibition. It was necessary, in selecting at- 
torneys, to consult the peculiar constitution of the senate and 
its make-up, and political partialities and proclivities. Mr. 
Brown agreed to my terms and I named Mr. J. C. Bills, of 
Davenport, and Mr. Fred W. Lehmann, of Des Moines, as the 
attorneys I desired to assist me in his defense. Mr. Lelunann 
was an excellent lawyer and a rising young man, very popular 
at that time with the democrats of the state. Mr. Bills was 
then nominally a republican, but had opposed the prohibitory 
law and stood well with that political element, besides being a 
good lawyer. 

Acting upon my theory as to first impression, I made an 
opening statement to the senate giving them a very careful and 
detailed history of the case, and of the facts that we expected 
to prove upon the several counts of the indictment or impeach- 
ment. In addition to these two counsel we also had the assis- 
tance of E. S. Huston, of Burlington, a relative of S. F. Stew- 
art, the deputy auditor. Mr. Huston especially looked after 
and cared for the interests of the deputy during the trial. 



180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

The managers upon the part of the house of representatives 
were Messrs. S. M. Weaver, John H. Keatley, L. A. Riley, G. 
W. Ball, J. E. Craig, R. G. Cousins, E. C. Roach. The trial 
continued about three months. I found I had made no mis- 
take in selecting my assistant attorneys. We had a room set 
apart for us in the capitol, where we were in counsel arranging 
the program for the day's work before the senate, and assign- 
ing to each attorney his particular share of the work of the 
day. I always dreaded in cooperating with attorneys in the 
trial of causes, having some one to assist me who would be an 
annoyance and a drawback rather than a help, but I found in 
Mr. Lehmann and Mr. Bills two good lawyers and men of good 
judgment and discretion, and we had a most agreeable as well 
as a successful time of it on our side of the trial table. 

The trial had not progressed more than a few weeks before 
we were able to turn the tide of feeling and sentiment in our 
favor, or rather in favor of our client, and the case, instead of 
being a prosecution of John L. Brown, actually became an ex- 
posure of the petty tyranny and foolishness of Buren R. Sher- 
man, and the managers on the part of the house were forced 
into the position of recognizing Sherman as their client and 
recognizing the necessity of defending his conduct rather than 
of convicting Mr. Brown of any serious offense against the 
law. 

It also was apparent before we had proceeded very far in 
the case that the managers of the prosecution did not entirely 
agree from time to time between themselves as to the part that 
each should take in the proceedings. Some of the men had 
evidently hoped to make a great reputation for themselves as 
lawyers, and were being disappointed in the result as to that 
particular. 

We had one serious hindrance and drawback in our case. 
F. S. Stewart, the deputy auditor, proved a very heavy load 
to carry. He had many winning ways by which he made no 
friends, and his conduct proved him to be a greedy, grasping 
man, and if the impeachment had been against him instead of 



THE BROWN IMPEACHMENT CASE 181 

Mr. Brown we should have found "Jordan a hard road to 
travel." In addition to his regular salary he had drawn a 
very considerable sum of money for extra pay and compensa- 
tion for work he had done in the Auditor's office, as he claimed, 
out of regular hours. He had also collected as bank examiner 
from the various banks he examined a considerable amount of 
fees for which there was no provision or warrant of law, and 
had taken the money to his own use. The only serious charge 
against Mr. Brown and the only one from which we appre- 
hended any danger, grew out of the examination of the Bremer 
County Bank, situated in Waverly, Bremer county, Iowa. 
That bank had for its rival another bank in the locality, that 
probably would have profited by having it go out of business, 
and they were entirely disappointed and dissatisfied because 
the examination of the bank by Mr. Brown in person and by 
an assistant proved the bank to be a solvent concern. After 
the examination of the bank and after Mr. Brown had given in 
for publication a certificate of their solvency, and without any 
previous request for compensation or suggestion of payment 
from any source, the cashier of the bank had paid to Mr. 
Brown voluntarily the sum of one hundred dollars as compen- 
sation for his extra services and expenses during the investi- 
gation of the affairs of the bank. 

The charge in the articles of impeachment was that this was 
a bribe to Mr. Brown that had induced him to certify fraudu- 
lently and falsely to the solvency of the bank. We proved 
beyond controversy that the bank was solvent and continued 
to be so for several years after the investigation, and that the 
certificate of solvency given to it was just and right and 
proper, and there was no foundation for the charge that it 
was given from any corrupt mlotive. This matter of the 
Bremer County Bank did not constitute any part of the orig- 
inal trouble or accusation against Brown by the Governor, 
but it was trumped up by Brown's enemies and was soon 
gathered in by the Governor's ''muck-rake." 

After all the evidence had been put in, both upon the part 



182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

of the prosecution and the defense, there remained one im- 
portant question for us to decide — as to whether or not we 
would put Mr. Brown upon the stand as a witness in his own 
case. The only thing we had to fear from our client as a wit- 
ness was his sensitiveness and pride and his determination 
to resent any insult or imputation against his honesty and 
integrity in office. We knew he had some enemies in the 
senate who were at the same time his judges and were to vote 
upon the question of his guilt, and these senators had the 
right to ask him; any questions upon cross-examination they 
might see proper. It would not do for his counsel to object 
to the relevancy or propriety of any questions that might be 
asked, as it might appear if we did so that we had something 
to hide or from which to shield our client. We had a long 
conference with Mr. Brown before we decided what course to 
pursue upon this question of making him a witness. He con- 
tinued to vow to us that he would not consent to submit to any 
insulting interrogatories, no matter from whom they came, 
and that he would talk back if any such were propounded. 
I finally had a private conference with Mr. Brown and urged 
upon him the absolute necessity that if he went upon the stand 
as a witness, of being perfectly cool and dispassionate and not 
manifesting any passion or resentment toward any of the 
senators who might question him. After a long conference 
upon this point, he finally promised me that he would do his 
best to suppress his indignation and his feelings, and would 
quietly answer any questions that might be asked him. The 
next day we put Mr. Brown upon the stand as a witness, and 
to his credit it may be said that he behaved himself most ad- 
mirably, and won the respect and esteem of the senate by his 
dignified and courteous behavior. 

The constitution of the state required, in order to convict 
the defendant, a vote of guilty by two-thirds of the members 
of the senate. Instead of this the highest vote against the 
defendant upon any article was fifteen votes, or less than 
one-third, and upon the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth 



THE BROWN IMPEACHMENT CASE 183 

articles that embraced the original controversy with Governor 
Sherman, upon which he refused to approve the Auditor's 
bond and appointed his subservient commission, there was not 
a single vote of guilty against the Auditor, but he was unani- 
mously acquitted. Upon several of the articles it appears 
that some of the senators voted "guilty" upon a very slim 
and unwarranted basis. For instance one of the articles of 
impeachment was against the Auditor for drawing a warrant 
in behalf of his clerk for the month's salary, the warrant 
specifying the particular section and chapter of the law that 
made an appropriation for the purpose of paying this clerk. 
The fact of the service being within the personal knowledge 
of the Auditor, and the receipt of the clerk being upon the 
stub of the warrant issued, and yet the managers insisted that 
there ought to have been a paper filed stating the account as 
between the clerk and the Auditor, and because it was not 
drawn out and filed among the papers of the office, six of the 
senators voted to find him guilty and to impeach him. It was 
a mere technicality, extremely, finely drawn out, and showed 
a disposition to try and ruin a man and his reputation without 
conscience or any regard to their duty as men and their oath 
as senators. The vote of fifteen upon the Bremer County 
Bank question against the Auditor may be justified upon the 
theory that a public officer situated as the Auditor was, having 
an important duty to perform, should not accept of any gift 
or favor or money that might be construed as something he 
had hoped for or expected when he performed his official duty. 
The act of receiving the money under the circumstances, 
though not criminal, was one of those acts of doubtful pro- 
priety that could scarcely be justified in a public officer. 

The acquittal of Mr. Brown was beyond question a right- 
eous and just act. Governor Larrabee, the newly elected Gov- 
ernor, had already restored Mr. Brown to his office and dis- 
charged the appointee to fill the created vacancy, and the 
people of the state retired Mr. Sherman from public employ- 
ment permanently. After retiring from office he engaged in 



184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

managing an insurance company at his former place of resi- 
dence in the state, in which he was unsuccessful. 

The state of Iowa paid to the attorneys in the case selected 
by Mr. Brown the sum of six dollars a day. I charged Mr. 
Brown, however, one thousand dollars for my entire services 
in connection with his imlpeachment, and he gave me his note 
for the balance, deducting the amount I had received from the 
state. This note was signed by S. F. Stewart. Some months 
afterwards I received from Stewart's wife a very remarkable 
letter, full of tears and sympathy for Brown, begging me to 
remit the amount on the note as Mr. Brown was poor and had 
been much wronged and abused. I ascertained that Stewart 
at or about the time he signed the note, had obtained from Mr. 
Brown a transfer to some valuable stock in the Iowa Home- 
stead newspaper at much less than the real value of the stock, 
and that they had counted the amount due me on this note as 
part of the consideration of the transfer. Estimating Mrs. 
Stewart's sympathy for Mr. Brown at its true value, I insisted 
on my note being paid in full, which Mr. Brown cheerfully did. 

Mr. Brown was further vindicated by the subsequent action 
of the general assembly of the state in making a reasonable 
appropriation to reimburse him for his expenses and attor- 
ney's fees paid out in making his defense against the articles 
of impeachment. The result of the investigation before the 
senate also had a very beneficial effect upon the home insur- 
ance companies in that it gave public confidence as to their 
solvency, and gave assurance that the proper department of 
state would make the investigation of their transactions from 
time to time thorough and real, and not as before merely 
nominal. 



1 



CHAPTER XV 

More Law Cases 

In the suininer of 1874 the city of Des Moines was thrown 
into a state of considerable excitement by the fact of finding 
the body of a murdered man on the sidewalk near the corner 
of Walnut and Second street. There was a house of bad 
repute in the vicinity, and the coroner 's jury made a thorough 
investigation, seemingly as far as practicable, as to the cause 
and origin of the death. The inhabitants of the house referred 
to were examined under oath, and the women who boarded 
there denied any knowledge whatever of the cause of the 
man's death. The Grove mor of the state offered a reward 
of five hundred dollars for the discovery and conviction of 
the murderer. At the next session of the grand jury of 
Polk county two of the women boarders at the house of bad 
repute referred to, and who had denied all knowledge of the 
murder, appeared before the grand jury and testified with 
much detail that Charles Howard, a man who had frequented 
their house, had been guilty of the murder and had carried 
out the dead body and laid it upon the sidewalk. The grand 
jury indicted Howard accordingly for murder in the first 
degree. The trial came on at the December term of the Polk 
county district court, and in view of the public excitement, 
which was largely kept alive by the daily press, Howard, by 
his attorney, made a motion for a change of venue on the 
ground of prejudice of the inhabitants of the county. Under 
the peculiar provisions of our statute, counter affidavits were 
permitted for the purpose of showing that there was no feel- 
ing in the community that would prevent Howard from re- 
ceiving a fair trial. The sheriff informed me that in walking 
two squares from the court house he had met two hundred 



186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

men who were willing to sign such counter affidavits, and had 
obtained a large number of them, which were filed accordingly. 
The district judge, H. W. Maxwell, overruled the motion for a 
change of venue, and the trial proceeded. The only testimony 
introduced in the conviction of Howard was that of the two 
bad women who had testified before the coroner's jury that 
they had no knowledge whatever in regard to the killing of 
Johnson. I was not personally engaged in any way as an at- 
torney in this case, but about ten o 'clock at night after the jury 
had retired to consider their verdict. Judge Maxwell sent for 
me to come to the court house for consultation. I found he had 
also sent for a like purpose for Mr. D. 0. Finch, one of the 
oldest members of the Polk county bar. The judge advised us 
that the jury had not agreed upon their verdict, but that 
some one had through the bailiff sent a note in to the jury 
room threatening the jury with violence in case they failed to 
convict the defendant. Judge Maxwell was much excited and 
asked Mr. Finch and myself what he ought to do under the 
circumstances. We advised him by all means to have the de- 
fendant conveyed for safe keeping to some place outside of 
the county, in charge of the sheriff, and to have it done secretly 
and immediately lest the mob might seize the accused and com- 
mit violence. We also advised him to discharge the jury from 
a further consideration of the case, as their verdict found 
under the influence of threats would be worthless, and that he 
ought also in vindication of his own court to thoroughly in- 
vestigate the question as to who was guilty in sending or per- 
mitting a threat to be communicated to the jury. Instead of 
being influenced by our advice Judge Maxwell had the jury 
brought into the courtroom for further instructions, and told 
them that great excitement and feeling prevailed in the com- 
munity in regard to the case, and that it was important that 
the jury should not disagree but should find a verdict in the 
case. The next morning the jury brought in a verdict of 
guilty, and the defendant waiving time for sentence. Judge 
Maxwell had the prisoner brought into court. The courtroom 



MORE LAW CASES 187 

was crowded by an excited mob, and the judge took occasion 
to harangue the prisoner, denouncing his conduct in the most 
vehement manner. He then sentenced the prisoner to im- 
prisonment in the penitentiai*y for life. That night the ex- 
cited mob broke open the jail, took the prisoner from his cell 
with a rope tied around his neck, and hung him to a lamp post 
in the court house square. The opinion of most of the persons 
who paid any attention to this trial was that there was no re- 
liable evidence of Howard's guilt, and that the probabilities 
were that the whole case was manufactured for the purpose 
of securing the reward offered for his conviction. Whether 
or not the reward was ever paid I have not been able to as- 
certain, but certain it is that the cowardice of the court and 
the indiscretion of the public press were responsible for the 
murder of a man who, to say the least of it, was never proved 
guilty by any competent evidence. 

We had among the distinguished judges that acted as 
teachers in our law school at Transylvania University a very 
eminent jurist who sometimes when he felt merry treated the 
class to that which was not only instructive but also entertain- 
ing. On one occasion he delivered to the class the following : 

Young Gentlemen: You will find that the general principles of 
the law are few and easily comprehended, but in their application to 
the ever-varying transactions of human life the best of minds will 
differ, hence arises what we denominate the glorious uncertainties of 
the law whereby we have our bread. 

The case that I am about to cite would satisfy the most 
credulous that there are other causes that produce uncertain 
results besides the difference in applying the general principles 
of the law to different cases. 

Section 3, article XI of the constitution of the state of 
Iowa, provided as follows : "No county or other political or 
municipal corporation shall be allowed to become indebted in 
any manner or for any purpose to an amount in the aggregate 
exceeding five per centum on the value of the taxable property 
within such county or corporation, to be ascertained by the 



188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSB 

last state or county tax list previous to the incurring of such 
indebtedness." In November, 1870, the taxable property, real 
and personal, within and subject to taxation by the said city 
of Des Moines, as ascertained by the last state and county tax 
list, amounted to the sum of $3,140,805 and no more, and that 
five per centum on said amlount was only the sum of $157,040- 
.25. In the month of May, 1869, the city had by ordinance 
authorized the issuing of bonds to the amount of $50,000 for 
the purpose of funding outstanding warrants, and afterwards 
in May, 1870, they had enacted a further ordinance authoriz- 
ing the issuing of bonds for funding outstanding warrants on 
the city treasurer to the amount of $75,000, all of which bonds 
had been duly issued and were outstanding at the time of the 
commencement of the suit hereinafter mentioned. In addi- 
tion to these bonds aggregating $125,000 there were also out- 
standing warrants upon the treasury to the amount of $55,000, 
making an aggregate indebtedness of the city $180,000. On 
the 7th of July, 1870, the city passed a further ordinance 
authorizing the issuing of bonds to the amount of $130,000 
for the building and repair of certain bridges across the Des 
Moines and Raccoon rivers, thus exceeding the constitutional 
limit upon the city's indebtedness. 

George Sneer, a citizen and taxpayer of the city of Des 
Moines, applied to me to bring a suit to test the validity of 
this last bond issue of $130,000, informing me that the bonds 
had been placed in the hands of B. F. Allen, then a banker of 
the city of Des Moines. I informed him I was willing to take 
the case provided that the suit should be maintained in good 
faith, that I was satisfied that the bonds were absolutely void 
whether in the hands of Allen or any other person, being issued 
in plain violation of the constitution of the state, and that 
every person purchasing any evidence of indebtedness against 
the city was bound to take notice of the existing indebtedness 
of the city and was charged with knowledge thereof, as it was 
a matter of record and easily ascertained. Mr. Sneer in- 
formed me that he desired the question of the validity of the 



MORE LAW CASES 189 

bonds tested in good faith, and that if I undertook the case I 
might prosecute it to the end. He contracted to pay me the 
sum of two hundred dollars for my services, and I accordingly 
prepared the bill for a perpetual injunction against the city 
council, city treasurer, and B. F. Allen. No one was made 
defendant to the petition except Allen and members of the 
city council and the city treasurer. Answers were filed by 
Mr. Withrow for B. F. Allen and by Seward Smith, his 
partner, for the city of Des Moines and members of the city 
council, and the case was submitted on bill and answer. There 
was no denial of the facts set forth in the petition in regard 
to the indebtedness of the city, nor did anyone appear in the 
case claiming to be bona fide purchasers of the bonds, but the 
answer of Allen was to the effect that he acted as agent for 
the city and had sold the bonds to one George P. Opdike & Co. 
of New York City. Maxwell was judge of the district court, 
and to my surprise entered the following decree in the case: 

This cause coming on for final hearing on the plaitiff's petition, 
and answer made thereto, and the defendant's answer and cross 
petition, and thus heard upon the pleadings alone, and the court hav- 
ing heard the argument of counsel, inspected the said record and being 
fully advised in the premises, doth order, adjudge and decree, that 
the plaintiff's bill be dismissed; that the bridge bonds described there- 
in be treated as in every respect binding obligations of the city of 
Des Moines according to the tenor thereof, and that the parties thereto 
and those in privity with them be forever concluded from asserting 
or maintaining any defense against the payment of said bonds, and 
the interest thereon, on the grounds that the same were irregularly 
issued in excess of the constitutional limitation upon the power of the 
said city to become indebted; that the money now in possession of 
the defendent Allen, be applied by the proper officers of the city of 
Des Moines to the purposes for which the same was raised ; and that 

the defendant have and recover the costs herein taxed at 

dollars, and that execution issue therefor. To which plaintiff ex- 
cepts. 

Upon the rendition of this decree I immediately entered 
an appeal in behalf of George Sneer, and perfected the same 



190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

by filing the proper abstract of record in the supreme court 
of the state. The cause was submitted to the supreme court 
on printed arguments on April 4, 1871. At the October term 
of the supreme court, being an argument term held at Daven- 
port at that date, the supreme court really decided the case 
by an opinion written by Judge Beck in behalf of a majority 
of the court, and the opinion was sent by Justice Day to the 
clerk about the time the court was to adjourn, with orders to 
file the same, and Mr. Charles Linderman, the clerk of the 
court, informed me that he had actually marked the opinion 
*' Filed," and that about the time that the filing was completed 
Judge C. C. Cole, then one of the judges of the supreme court, 
entered the clerk's office and filed with him a paper signed by 
George Sneer dismissing his appeal, and that he entered upon 
the records of the court the following entry: ''On applica- 
tion of appellant, it is ordered by the court that the appeal 
herein be, and the same is hereby dismissed." 

At the ensuing regular term of the supreme court held at 
Des Moines, December 5, 1871, the following entry was made 
in the case: ''At the argument term held at Davenport in 
October last, on application of George Sneer per se, appellant 
herein, the court ordered that the appeal be dismissed. ' ' Be- 
fore this dismissal either at Davenport or at Des Moines Sneer 
had settled with me and paid me the fee agreed upon, and I 
had nothing further to do with the case except to reproach 
him for violating his agreement with me that I should prose- 
cute the case to a final result. 

It appeared from the sequel that Judge Cole had also pre- 
pared a dissenting opinion in the case, and these two opinions, 
that written by Judge Beck as the opinion of the court, and 
the one written by himself were both published in theWestern 
Jurist the ensuing January, the one marked "B" and the 
other marked " C, " but suppressing the fact that the opinion 
marked "B" was the opinion of a majority of the court, and 
that none of the judges, except Judge Cole, agreed with the 
opinion marked " C ; " and having the following extraordinary 



MORE LAW CASES 191 

note printed in connection with the opinions, Judge Cole being 
then the editor of the Western Jurist : ' ' These two articles, 
this and the following which advocates a different view of the 
same question, are from members of the profession in Iowa 
occupying equal prominence before the public, and whose 
opinions are entitled to consideration." Whilst these opin- 
ions do not give the detail of the case that was submitted to 
the court and to which they relate, yet by carefully reading 
them you can easily see that they refer to an actual contro- 
versy that had been pending before the supreme court. The 
supreme court of Iowa subsequently decided the question that 
was involved in the case of Sneer vs. the City of Des Moines, 
establishing the principle as applied to this transaction to the 
effect that the bonds were absolutely void in the hands even 
of an innocent purchaser if such had been the case. See 

McPherson vs. Foster, 43 Iowa, page 48. 

Mosher vs. Independent School Dist., 44 Iowa, page 122. 

French vs. Burlington, 42 Iowa, page 614. 

Andrews vs. Orient Fire Ins. Co., 88 Iowa, page 579. 

Holliday vs. Hildebrandt, 66 Northwestern Reporter, 
page 89. 

The dismissal of the appeal by Sneer left the decree entered 
by Judge Maxwell in full force as though no appeal had ever 
been taken, and the parties procuring this result, after they 
had full knowledge of the fact that the majority of the judges 
of the supreme court held the bonds void, are fully entitled to 
all of the credit that their conduct merits, and I only record 
the matter here as a matter of history and as vindication of 
myself and to exonerate myself from any responsibility for 
the final result, as I had no knowledge of the dismissal of the 
appeal until long after the thing was done. 

I have within the past few weeks examined the archives of 
the supreme court, and find that the original opinion of the 
court written by Judge Beck signed "B" and printed in the 
Western Jurist (see Vol. VI-1872) cannot be found, and also 
the paper signed by George Sneer dismissing the appeal is 



192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

missing from the files of the court. I presume the city coun- 
cil, as they had by their attorney asked to be enjoined from 
disputing the validity of these bonds, had obtained a decree 
against themselves to that effect, very willingly paid the bonds 
when they matured, but of this I have no actual knowledge. 



II 



CHAPTER XVI 
Birth of a Son and Personal Incidents 

Leaving the history of political and professional for the 
present, it will now be necessary to revert and give in some 
detail matters more personal and affecting more nearly my 
own private life. I have already given an account of my mar- 
riage and removal to Des Moines. 

On the 18th of Febiniary, 1863, my wife and myself were 
made happy by the birth of our only child. This hope de- 
ferred came after ten years of waiting. Whilst the child was 
still an infant I was compelled to be absent on professional 
business at Indianola in Warren county. I concluded my busi- 
ness as soon as possible and hurried home, feeling an un- 
pleasant premonition that everything was not all right with 
the mother and the child. Heavy rains had swollen the streams 
between Indianola and Des Moines, and as I approached the 
small bridge crossing the creek about four miles south of Des 
Moines, I found the water running several feet deep over the 
floor of the bridge. I knew this made the passage very dan- 
gerous because frequently such floods took away the flooring 
and made it probable that the horse and buggy in which I was 
riding might be cast into the flood of the stream. After some 
hesitation, however, I determined to take the risk and plunged 
into the stream accordingly. I got safely over and was much 
relieved when I found myself again on solid ground. I got 
home a little after dark and found an old lady who had been 
employed as nurse to the little one, who was squalling violently, 
engaged in trotting the infant upon her knee, as my wife 
lay on the bed on the very verge of hysterics. The next morn- 
ing early I put out to find a nurse woman possessed of more 
flesh and patience, and the domestic trouble subsided. The 



194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

first six months after the arrival of the little stranger my wife 
could scarcely obtain an hour's consecutive rest. The normal 
condition of the child appeared to be colicky. As I had to be 
engaged throughout the day in my business we finally estab- 
lished a second bedroom and I divided the time at night as well 
as I could with my wife, taking my turn at walking the floor 
at ''half dress." The child, however, proved a great comfort 
to us and a pleasure, though for many months it was the pur- 
suit of pleasure under difficulties. 

At the approach of the following year we were surprised 
by a visit from the wife of Mr. Charles McMeekin, my wife's 
brother, who then resided at Cincinnati, Ohio. His wife 
brought with her two children, a boy and a girl, she herself 
being something of an invalid. It was very difficult at that 
time, as it has been ever since, to obtain competent domestic 
help, and after entertaining this lady and her two children for 
several months I found it necessary to notify my brother-in- 
law that situated as I was it was no longer convenient for me 
to entertain his family, and they accordingly left us and went 
to live at a boarding house kept by Mrs. Washburn on Fourth 
street. The next summer, at the request of my wife, I con- 
sented to take one of the sons of her sister Eliza, and I fur- 
nished the means for his transportation from Newport, Ken- 
tucky, to Des Moines. I tried to give this boy instructions in 
reading, writing, and arithmetic, but found him not inclined to 
study, and especially disinclined to afford any help or assist- 
ance about the house. He had been raised under the shadow 
of a peculiar institution and had imbibed a strong prejudice 
against anything like work. After worrying with him for 
three or four months and being unable to make anything out 
of him, I sent him home to his mother. 

In 1849 I purchased two lots on the northeast corner of 
Center and Fifth streets and removed my old buildings from 
my place on Fourth street to the lots so purchased, making 
some improvements on the buildings. These lots and build- 



BIRTH OF A SON 195 

ings I afterwards sold and built a new house on the old place 
on Fourth street. 

In the fall of 1877, whilst on a visit to Ohio, my half- 
brother, Charles R. Nourse, invited me to a private interview 
in which he disclosed the fact to me that he was engaged to be 
mjarried and wanted me to do sometliing to help him start in 
life in some kind of business. The young man had not im- 
proved his opportunities for an education and had spent sev- 
eral winters doing farm work. Before I had left home on that 
occasion Sylvanus Edinburn had proposed to exchange a small 
farm that he had in the suburbs of the city, of eighty-eight 
acres, for some property I had acquired in town. It occurred 
to me that I might help the boy by making the trade for this 
farm, and I accordingly told him if he would have his mother 
send an invitation to his intended to come and take dinner with 
us, and I liked the looks of the proposed wife I would do some- 
thing for him. He readily consented to this arrangement, as 
did also his intended, and as she appeared to be an industrious 
and bright young woman I came home and completed the pur- 
chase of the farm which I obtained a deed for in March, 1878. 
There was no building on the farm fit to live in. I had the old 
house moved onto the barn-lot and fixed up for a granary, and 
built a new house at the expense of about fifteen hundred dol- 
lars. In the following spring Charles R. with his bride put in 
an appearance and I settled them in their new home, where 
they lived happily for a nmnber of years, but finally after 
about fifteen years that most fatal of all curses, strong drink, 
got possession of the young man and he went to the bad. 

In the year of 1875 while visiting my sister at Tuscola, 
Illinois, I found her in possession of a very large and increas- 
ing family. I was especially pleased with her second daugh- 
ter, Rose, then a young lady about twenty years of age, and 
suggested to my sister that if she would consent I would take 
Rose home with me and help her to an education. Accord- 
ingly in 1876 Rose came to Des Moines and made her home 
with us. 



196 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

My oldest brother, Joseph G. Nourse, had died at Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, in March, 1863, and about the year of 1876 I had 
induced his widow with her three boys to remove to Des 
Moines, her oldest daughter Susan having previously married 
to Mr. J. A. Jackson. I had before that time induced Mr. 
Jackson and his wife also to remove to Des Moines and had 
given Mr. Jackson employment in my office as an assistant. I 
had also built on Fourth street a one story cottage of three 
rooms and a kitchen, which they occupied for a year or two. 

After my niece, Rose Vimont, had been with us for prob- 
ably a year I became satisfied that she had not succeeded in 
winning the affections of my wife. Dr. C. R. Pomeroy had 
been our pastor at the Centenary Methodist church for several 
years and had removed to Emporia, Kansas, and taken charge 
of the State Normal School at that place. As Rose desired 
to prepare herself for a teacher I went with her to Emporia 
in the spring of 1877 and placed her at the institution under 
the care of Dr. Pomeroy and his wife, where she remained for 
twelve months, when school was suspended by reason of a fire 
which destroyed the buildings. Rose returned to Des Moines 
and the following year, 1878, she taught a small school in the 
brick schoolhouse on the northwest corner of my farm, and 
had a room and boarded with my half brother, Charles R. 
Afterwards she obtained a situation in the public schools of 
the city of Des Moines and became a very successful teacher, 
remaining in the city some fifteen years or more. 

Soon after the purchase of my farm, in order further to 
promote the interests of my brother and give him employment, 
I became interested in the purchase and raising of pure bred 
short-horn cattle, committing to my brother the immediate 
supervision and care of them on the farm, and building some 
extensive bams and other out-buildings. I subsequently bought 
from George Sneer 126 acres of valuable land in section 20, 
township 79, range 24, and afterwards in July, 1879, bought 
thirty-seven acres adjoining the tract that I had purchased of 
Edinbum, making a part of the home farm. I also bought 



BIRTH OF A SON 197 

adjoining the same original tract eleven acres from a man by 
the name of Parks. 

Subsequently I contracted with a man by the name of Miller 
to put down a bore hole on my land near the bams, with the 
hope of procuring artesian water for my cattle and a flowing- 
well. In this I was disappointed, but I required the man to 
keep an accurate journal of the different strata through which 
he bored, and at the distance of about 140 feet below the sur- 
face he went through a valuable strata of coal averaging from 
four and one-half to six feet in thickness. I subsequently 
leased the right to take coal from these lands to the Keystone 
Coal Company, under which lease they sunk a shaft and oper- 
ated a mine on the home place for about thirteen years. The 
royalty from the coal during these thirteen years more than 
paid the original purchase price of this land, which cost me 
originally only about fifty dollars per acre. 

About the year 1878 I received a letter from my old friend, 
Amos Harris, formerly a resident of Centerville, Iowa, then 
living at Wichita, Kansas, informing me of the death of a man 
by the name of Loring, who had been a former client of mine, 
residing at Indianola, Iowa. He stated that Mr. Loring had 
left a widow and some five little children, all girls, the youngest 
an infant only a few months old, and that the family was left 
in a destitute condition; that upon questioning Mrs. Loring 
she had told him that I had transacted some business as attor- 
ney for herself and husband, and had sold a house and lot in In- 
dianola that they had deeded to me, with a promise upon my 
part that after paying certain debts for the collection of which 
I was attorney, if there was anything left they should have it. 
I had realized about one hundred dollars over and above the 
amount paid out and I immediately sent Mrs. Loring fifty dol- 
lars for the relief of her immediate necessities, and afterwards 
paid her the balance. Some four or five years after this Mrs. 
Loring came to Des Moines, bringing with her this young child 
then about four or five years of age, stating that she had a 
short time before that married a man by the name of Gregory, 



198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

that he was a man of considerable means but refused to sup- 
port her first husband's children, that she wished to make 
some arrangement to have this young child cared for, that 
she had already disposed of her older girls among her rela- 
tives. I introduced her to Mrs. Winkley, then a resident of 
Des Moines, who kept a school for small children and boarded 
and cared for them, a lady to whom my son had been going to 
school and who was held in high estimation by her many 
friends. Mrs. Gregory, as she then was, arranged with Mrs. 
Winkley to leave her youngest child with her to be cared for, 
and left with me some money to pay Mrs. Winkley from time 
to time, and also any other expenses that might be incurred 
in the care of the child. Mrs. Winkley lived on Third street 
within a block or two of our residence, and I frequently had 
this child visit our home. My wife seemed to be interested 
in the child and became attached to her, as I did also myself. 
Along about the first of February, 1882, Mrs. Gregory came 
into my office in Des Moines, stating that she had come to take 
her child Susie, as she could no longer afford to bear the ex- 
pense of her keeping with Mrs. Winkley. I asked her if that 
was the only objection to the child remaining where it was, 
and she said yes, she was very well satisfied but she was then 
separated from her husband and was not able to pay the ex- 
pense incident to the child's keeping in her present situation. 
I asked her if she had any home to which she could take the 
child, and she said no, that she had employment at some sani- 
tary institution but it really was not a home for the little one. 
Upon the impulse of the moment and without any very con- 
siderable thought upon the subject and having no consultation 
with my wife, I told Mrs. Gregory to leave the child where it 
was and I would bear the expense of caring for her. My in- 
come from my practice at that time was averaging about 
$10,000 a year and I saw nothing very serious about this under- 
taking, but upon reporting it to my wife she expressed herself 
very much dissatisfied. Upon further reflection I feared that 
after the child became older the mother might claim its cus- 



BIRTH OF A SON 199 

tody, and for my own protection I wrote out articles of adop- 
tion and sent it to the mother, which she duly executed and 
returned it to me, surrendering to me the full care, custody 
and control of the child, which articles were duly recorded in 
Polk county, Iowa, on the 8th of February, 1882. After re- 
maining for several years with Mrs. Winkley I sent this child 
to Chicago to the school of Miss Rebecca Rice, where she 
remained for a number of years and received a very satis- 
factory education. The enterprise, however, of caring for 
and educating this child was not a success. My wife imbibed 
a strong prejudice against her and never received her as a 
member of the family. When she was about seventeen years 
of age she became dissatisfied and I sent her to her mother, 
who was then living in California. She did not remain with 
her mother, but afterwards came back to me and by her own 
wish and desire I arranged to have her taught telegraphy by 
the superintendent of city telegraphs at Chicago. In the 
meantime I ascertained that while she was in California she 
had engaged herself to be miarried to a man by the name of 
Guldager. I tried to dissuade her from this early and incon- 
siderate engagement but she had not learned the lesson of 
obedience and was not easily controlled by good advice or 
counsel. Her California lover furnished her the means and 
she left without my knowledge or consent and went to Cali- 
fornia to him when she was about eighteen years of age, and 
was married. 

After the dissolution of my partnership with Williamson 
& St. John in 1865, 1 continued the practice of law without any 
partner in business, receiving assistance from time to time 
from young men who were studying law in the office or who 
were beginners in the profession. None of these, however, 
proved entirely satisfactory. 

About the year 1870 Benjamin F. Kauffman, then a young 
man recently graduated in the law department of the State 
University, came to me desiring a situation in my office. I had 
been so disappointed in the young men who had preceded him 



200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

that I hesitated about making any further engagement in that 
direction. Judge George G. Wright, however, who had been 
one of Mr. Kauffman's preceptors at the law school, warmly 
recommended him and urged me to give him a position in the 
office. He was entirely without means and I oif ered finally to 
pay his board for six months and take htm upon trial. He 
asked me what he could expect after the expiration of the six 
months. I told him that after six months if I found that I 
could get along without him I should discontinue the arrange- 
ment. He replied that that was a very hard proposition. I 
told him no, that he was a young man in good health, full of 
energy, and if he could not make himself a necessity to my 
business in six months there was no reason why I should con- 
tinue even to pay his board. He said if he accepted my propo- 
sition, what would I do for him at the end of the six months. 
I told him that if he made himself a necessity to my business 
so that I could not get along without him, he would then be 
master of the situation and I thought there would be no trouble 
about arranging terms that would be entirely satisfactory to 
him. He came into the office accordingly and applied himself 
diligently to business. I occasionally stated to him some 
question involved in cases I had pending and desired him to ex- 
amine the authorities and make a brief upon the question 
involved. He proved to be of very material assistance, very 
industrious, with a clear mind capable of understanding and 
analyzing and applying the cases he found in the books bear- 
ing upon the question under investigation. At the end of 
six months I arranged a partnership with him and he con- 
tinued in that relation for seventeen years, with much profit 
pecuniarily both to himself and myself. 

In the year of 1874 I exchanged a lot that I owned on 
Center street with Mrs. McCauley for property on Fifth street, 
taking the deed in the name of the firm of Nourse & Kauffman, 
upon which we built the subsequent year a two story brick 
building, occupying the south half of the first story for our 
law offices. We subsequently bought from Thomas Boyd the 



BIRTH OF A SON 201 

forty-four feet on the east end of this purchase, giving us 
the entire forty-four south feet of lot 2, block 22, of the original 
town, and in the year 1886 we built a four story brick building 
covering the entire surface of the lot. 

On the dissolution of my partnership with Mr. Kauffman I 
formed a partnership with my nephew, Clinton L. Nourse, 
and we removed into the new building and occupied the front 
rooms of the second story. Mr. Kauffman in the meantime 
entered into partnership with one N. T. Guernsey and occu- 
pied rooms on the fourth floor of the building. 

About the first of January, 1880, I received information 
that my father, who had removed to and was then residing at 
Eeynoldsburg, Ohio, was very ill and not expected to live. I 
immediately went to Eeynoldsburg. My father was still con- 
scious and able to recognize me, but was very nearly approach- 
ing the end. My brother, John D., who resided then at Lan- 
caster, Ohio, was in attendance upon my father but unable to 
arrest the disease. On the 3rd of Januaiy my father passed 
away. After his death in conference with my step-mother 
in regard to her future, I found she was disposed to join her 
sister, Mary Herron, in building a small house in West Rush- 
ville and making her home there. I was satisfied that this 
arrangement would not last. My step-mother was a self-sac- 
rificing woman and I knew her sister's disposition was very 
exacting. It was also arranged that my half-sister Mary 
should live with them. When I bid my step-mother good-bye 
I told her that I had no confidence in the permanency of the 
arrangement she had made with her sister, but in view of her 
faitlifulness to my father during his old age I wanted her to 
feel that she should have a home, and if the arrangement she 
had made to live with her sister did not prove satisfactory, 
not to hesitate about advising me of the fact, and I would 
provide her a home on the farm where her youngest boy 
Charles R., was then living. As I anticipated, after a few 
years I received information that mother and sister Mary 
both desired to come to Iowa and avail themselves of my 



202 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

proffered help. They came accordingly and the first year re- 
sided with my half-brother Charles. Mother then had about 
twelve-hundred dollars of the small means left, and I proposed 
to borrow this money and build her a house which she should 
have rent free, and I would pay her interest on the twelve- 
hundred dollars which would enable her to live comfortably 
on the farm. I accordingly built the cottage for herself and 
her daughter Mary, which they continued to occupy for several 
years. In the meantime sister Mary taught a Sunday School 
class in the neighborhood, and among her scholars was one 
Chris Mathes. This rude uneducated boy, seventeen years 
younger than herself, pretended to fall in love with her and on 
the first of January, 1889, she became his wife. In March, 
1896, my step-mother died, leaving what little means she had 
to her daughter Mary, and what was left of the money she had 
advanced to me for building the house she had occupied on 
the farm, which I afterwards paid over to Mary in full. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Breedeb of Short Horn Cattle 

My half-brother, Charles R., continued on the farm in 
my employment and in the care of my short-horn cattle 
business until the year 1889, when I sold out my entire herd. 
During the ten years I was in the business I enjoyed the re- 
creation and attention to my stock, finding it a great relief 
from my nervous tension and anxiety incident to an extensive 
practice of the law. Soon after I commenced the business I at- 
tended a meeting of the short-horn breeders of the state at 
West Liberty, Iowa, at which time there was organized a 
Short-Horn Breeders' Association of the state of Iowa, and I 
was elected president of the association and continued in that 
office for seven years and until I retired from the business. In 
the meantime we had also organized a national association at 
Chicago for the purpose of purchasing the short-horn herd 
books published in New York, Ohio, and Kentucky, and estab- 
lishing the American Short-Horn Herd Book, which became 
the only authentic publication of pedigrees of short-horn 
cattle in the United States. I was made a member of this 
board of control and continued in that relation for a number of 
years, until I declined a further election because of my retire- 
ment from the business. Our board of directors represented 
some eleven different states of the Union with one director 
from Canada. Our annual meetings were held at the time of 
the annual Fat Stock Show in Chicago, and the gentlemen 
with whom I was associated in that capacity were among the 
most pleasant acquaintances I ever made during my lifetime. 
I found them intelligent, broad-minded men, entirely unselfish 
and devoted to the interests of the Association. During my 
connection with the board we paid off the entire indebtedness 



204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

incurred in the purchase of the Short-Horn Herd Book as 
theretofore published by Mr. Allen of New York, and also the 
indebtedness incurred in the purchase of the Kentucky Herd 
Book and the Ohio Herd Book. Our state association also 
met once a year in connection with the Improved Stock 
Breeders' Association of the state. We generally wound up 
these sessions of our meetings with a banquet given us by the 
citizens of the place where we held our meetings. At these 
banquets we had a number of toasts and speeches, rather of 
the humorous than of the instructive kind. I give herewith a 
specimen that I find printed with the proceedings of the asso- 
ciation held at Ottumwa on the 4th day of December, 1885. 

The Short-horn and Improved Stock Breeders' associations of 
Iowa were intended in a great measure by their founders as mission- 
ary societies. It was contemplated that they would hold their con- 
ventions in the smaller towns and more sparsely settled portions of 
the state, where their discussions upon breeds and breeding would 
educate the farmers around in these great and important industries. 

A feast like this in one of the thriving and finest cities of the 
state is hardly consistent with this benevolent and self-sacrificing pur- 
pose, and I have reason to fear for the consequences; we may fall 
from grace. At a recent session of the New York Annual Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, it is said that the bishop had great 
difficulty in satisfying the preachers about their appointments. One 
of the elders gravely informed the bishop, that the preachers in his 
district had two ambitions; one was to get to heaven, and the other 
was to be stationed in the city of New York, and if they were to miss 
either, he thought they would prefer to go to New York ! 

Now I know many of these self-sacrificing gentlemen I see around 
me have in the past of their lives been trjdng to do good, looking for 
their reward largely in the next world ; but I fear in the future, when 
we come to fix the place of our next annual meeting, they will forget 
the spirit of self-sacrifice and the world to come, and say, "Let us 
go to Ottumwa ! " [ Great laughter. ] 

I wish I could express to the citizens of Ottumwa the genuine 
appreciation that I know these my brethren feel for them. It could 
not be otherwise than that they should love you. You have appre- 
ciated us and we must ever appreciate you. Your example also may be 



BREEDER OF SHORT HORN CATTLE 205 

valuable to us ; others may hear of your good works and may be there- 
by moved to be equally mindful of our necessities. [Applause.] 

My first knowledge of Ottumwa was in the year 1851. It was 
then a straggling village of one street lined on either side with wooden 
shanties. It would have been impossible for me to have imagined then 
that in a few short years, whilst I am yet a young man [laughter], 
there should be built here a substantial city of fifteen thousand in- 
habitants. This goodly town is indeed a proud monument to the 
thrift, enterprise, intelligence, and taste of its inhabitants. Its com- 
mercial and manufacturing interests, and its tasteful architecture 
you may justly be proud of. 

Iowa is indeed a remarkable state and her people a peculiar 
people. We have but few drones in the hive. Our population is 
made up of simply the young and the strong and the enterprising of 
the other states that have come hither to build up their personal for- 
tunes, and who have at the same time laid well and strong the founda- 
tions of a great state. There is scarcely a college or university of 
any of the older states that is not well represented in our men and 
women. We have come together here and what one did not know he 
has learned from his next door neighbor. All have contributed some- 
thing to the common fund of knowledge and enterprise. We have 
now built our own schoolhouses and colleges, and today we have a 
less per cent of illiteracy than any other state in the Union. But 
there is one burden on my heart and one thought I desire to express : 
What is the future to be? Are we giving to the state the children 
that may worthily fill our places and take up and carry forward the 
work that we have begun ? The highest duty that we owe to the state 
is to furnish to it in our children that perfect type of manhood that 
will constitute its true glory. What signifies this accumulation of 
wealth, these fine buildings, this beautiful architecture, if our sons are 
to be profligates and the accursed saloon is to destroy all the fruit of 
our toil. The time has come when as citizens and as fathers we must 
seriously address ourselves to this problem of our civilization. 

I came to Iowa more than thirty years ago. I formed many warm 
attachments among the young men, then just beginning life. I re- 
member the pride and hope that these young men and their then 
young wives had in their children. As I visit the older towns where 
these men have lived and won honorable distinction I have inquired 
for their children. Alas ! Too often it is a sad story and a painful 



206 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

remembrance, and I have asked myself the question, is this always to 
be so ? And is there no help ? 

But enough of this ; I forget I was not appointed to preach a ser- 
mon, but to respond to a toast, and to express the appreciation of 
these stockbreeders for your kindness. You have done well. The 
scriptures exhort "that we should not be forgetful to entertain 
strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. ' ' Now 
I am willing to admit that it would be a violent imagination that 
would mistake one of these lusty stockbreeders for an angel. It will 
probably be some time before even the pin-feathers will sprout from 
their shoulder blades. But they are susceptible and under proper 
influences and conditions I don't know what may happen. I remem- 
ber in the early days of Des Moines, when we were dependent upon 
ourselves entirely for amusements, the ladies got up a public enter- 
tainment consisting chiefly of tableaux. I had the honor of officiat- 
ing as stage manager. One representation was of a good and an evil 
spirit, representing an angel and a devil. The ladies were quite tardy 
in getting ready. I went into the green room to hurry matters and 
found the ladies dressing [great applause and continued interruption]. 
Do not interrupt in the middle of a sentence. I was saying I found 
the ladies dressing the angel — a young lady to whom they were attach- 
ing a pair of wings. I chided their delay and unfortunately remarked, 
"that it took a long time to make an angel out of a woman." The 
man who was to represent the evil spirit was sitting by, all ready, 
with blackened face and horns, and one of the ladies, pointing to him 
instantly remarked, "that it took but little time to make a devil out 
of a man." Of course it is only a question of time with all of this 
crowd. We all expect to be angels but it will take time and good 
feeding. 

I believe I have fully exhausted the subject assigned to me, to 
say nothing of the audience. It is sad to have to make a speech 
when you don't know beforehand what you are going to say and 
nobody knows after you are done what you have said. Brethren we 
have cast our bread upon the waters — and it has returned to us after 
many days, literally and substantially. 

I cannot conclude without thanking you for your quiet and un- 
interrupted attention. 

During my visit to Emporia, Kansas, with my niece, Rose 



BREEDER OP SHORT HORN CATTLE 207 

Vimont, I found a volume written by Alexander H. Stephens, 
evidently for the purpose of justifying the attempt that had 
been made to destroy the government of the United States by 
the disintegration of the government and the establislunent 
of the doctrine of the right of secession. That fall I was 
invited by the president of the faculty of Simpson Centenary 
College at Indianola, Iowa, to deliver an address at the college 
commencement. I accordingly prepared with considerable 
care a lecture upon the constitutional relations of the national 
and state governments, in which I endeavored to combat 
the heresies contained in Stephens's book, and the great truth 
that the national government was not a compact between sover- 
eign states, but was what it purported to be — a government 
eminating from the source of all power: to-wit, the people. 
The trustees and faculty of the college, after this lecture, hon- 
ored me by conferring upon me the degree of Doctor of Laws. 
This lecture I afterwards delivered, upon the invitation of the 
president and faculty of Drake University, before the students 
of that institution, and also before the law class of the State 
University at Iowa City. 

About this time I also prepared and delivered on several 
occasions a lecture upon the legal rights of married women, 
containing somie sarcasm and criticism upon the advanced 
legislation by which under our laws a wife could bring suit in 
the courts and obtain judgment upon a promissory note exe- 
cuted by her husband and payable to herself, citing an instance 
in which this doctrine had actually been put in practice, and 
remarking upon the right of the wife to issue execution against 
her husband and cause a levy to be made upon his personal 
property for the payment of the judgment, stating, however, 
that the law in its humanity and pity for the husband had 
fortunately exempted the husband's wearing apparel, includ- 
ing his pantaloons, from execution. This lecture I also de- 
livered, at the request of several local institutions in several 
parts of the state. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
B. F. Allen's Bankkuptcy 

On the 2nd day of January, 1875, the citizens of Des Moines 
were startled by the news that the Cook County Bank of Chi- 
cago, Illinois, of which bank B. F. Allen was president, had 
closed its doors. A meeting of the citizens was called and held 
for consultation to ascertain what effect this would have on 
the local affairs of our city. Impressions seemed to prevail at 
first that the failure of the Cook County Bank did not neces- 
sarily involve the failure of B. F. Allen or of his private bank 
in the city of Des Moines, or of the National Bank of this city, 
of which he was president. The great question before the 
meeting was to ascertain "where we were at." A committee 
was appointed for that purpose. I had the temerity to sug- 
gest that this committee could easily ascertain what we all 
desired to know by examining the bills receivable in Mr. Al- 
len's bank. I was decidedly of the opinion that the Cook 
County Bank had never failed and closed its doors while Mr. 
Allen controlled the means to avoid such a result. Some 
months before this time, on my return home from business 
out of the state, my partner, Mr. Kauffman, informed me that 
he had purchased a certificate of deposit on B. F. Allen's bank 
at a liberal discount from one J. C. Taylor. The certificate 
of deposit was of recent date, payable twelve months after 
date. It occurred to me a very strange performance that Mr. 
Taylor should deposit fifteen hundred dollars in the bank and 
take a certificate payable twelve months after date, and then 
go into the market and sell such a certificate at a liberal dis- 
count. As I then suspected, and afterwards ascertained the 
fact to be, Taylor had not deposited fifteen hundred dollars in 
the bank, but had furnished the bank his promissory note pay- 



B. F. ALLEN'S BANKRUPTCY 209 

able to the Cook County Bank and had received in exchange 
for it a certificate of deposit payable twelve months after date, 
and this note of Taylor's had been endorsed by Allen as presi- 
dent of the Cook County Bank, and had been sent to New York 
as an asset upon which to raise money. Fortunately this little 
transaction coming to my knowledge induced me to remove my 
business from B. F. Allen's bank and I lost nothing by his 
failure. 

A short time after this ; to-wit, about the 26th of January, 
1875, a gentleman from New York, to-wit, A. N. Denman, 
formerly a clerk in the office of Allen, Stephens & Co., came 
into my office and put in my hands for suit and foreclosure 
the following remarkable document : 

New York, 18 Nov., 1874. 

I hereby acknowledge the receipt of $465,000 of advances to the 
Cook County National Bank of Chicago for my account, same being 
made by Allen, Stephens & Co. in money, paper, and endorsements. 
I have arranged with them for additional advances. In consideration 
thereof I hereby grant and convey to Allen, Stephens & Co. by way 
of mortgage and as security for such advances, all ray real estate of 
every kind and description, and wherever situated. 

B. F. Allen. 

This mortgage was not filed for record with the recorder 
of deeds of Polk county until the 19tli of January, 1875. On 
the 30th of November, 1874, it had been placed in a sealed 
package and intrusted to Mr. Denman in the city of New York 
with sealed instructions and directions for him to proceed with 
the package to Chicago and there await further instructions. 
He was not even informed of the contents of the package and 
was instructed not to open it until he received advices from 
New York as to further proceedings. 

When the people of Des Moines began to realize that B. F. 
Allen had really become a bankrupt they were ready to be- 
lieve almost any theory that would exonerate him from the 
censure that he deserved in risking the money of his deposi- 
tors in wild and foolish speculation. One theory promul- 



210 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

gated and believed was that he had been deceived in the value 
of the assets of the Cook County Bank when he purchased the 
same. On the contrary the evidence taken in the suit to which 
I have alluded shows that he did not pay a dollar of his own 
money for the stock of the Cook County Bank. Several years 
before his failure and before his purchase of the Cook County 
Bank, or a controlling interest in it, he had been appointed by 
the United States Circuit Court of Des Moines receiver in a 
litigation that had been commenced against the Chicago, Rock 
Island & Pacific Railroad Company. As such receiver he 
had come into possession of about $800,000 of bonds issued 
by the Rock Island Company. These bonds he had hypothe- 
cated in New York City for money with which he carried on his 
speculations, and as the time approached for him to make 
settlement of his receivership he found it necessary to do some- 
thing in order to save the sureties on his bond. He accord- 
ingly went to Chicago and in May, 1873, he purchased the con- 
trolling interest in the Cook County Bank, giving a draft for 
the larger part of it on Allen, Stephens & Co., and his note for 
the balance, all of which was ultimately paid out of the money 
of the depositors of the Cook County Bank. The funds that 
he came in control of by this means enabled him to settle his 
receivership. Mr. Allen, in his testimony in the case referred 
to gives the following account of his losses by speculation : 
As a member of the firm of B. F. Murphy & 

Co., Chicago $200,000 

H. M. Bush & Co., Grain Speculation 75,000 

Lewis & Stephens, speculators (grain) 30,000 

Swamp Land speculation 18,000 

San Pete Coal Co. of Utah 18,000 

Denver Coal Lands 5,000 

Kentucky Lands 25,000 

South Evanston property 40,000 

Building on So. Evanston property 40,000 

Sheffield near South Chicago 32,000 

Grand Pacific Hotel stock 10,000 



B. F. ALLEN'S BANKRUPTCY 211 

Prairie Avenue Residence 31,000 

Chicago Railway Construction Co. 10,000 

Canada Southern Railway Co. 60,000 

Toledo, Wabash & Western R. R. Co. 35,000 

Speculation Stock Exchange 150,000 

These losses only foot up $779,000, whereas in truth and 
in fact the depositor's accounts in his private bank in Des 
Moines alone amounted to $800,000 at the time of his failure, 
and his indebtedness to the Charter Oak Life Insurance Com- 
pany for money procured by Blennerhassett from that institu- 
tion amounted to over one-half million dollars, and a draft of 
the Iowa State National Bank $100,000 not credited to that 
bank until after the failure. In May 1874, one Warren Hussey, 
of Utah, visited Blennerhassett & Stephens in New York City 
and induced them to procure a pretended loan of $400,000 
from the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, then repre- 
sented by its vice-president, a man by the name of White. 
The money was advanced as a pretended loan to one Mattlew 
Gisbom without any security whatever save the personal 
security of Gisborn & Hussey, with a private understanding 
that Mr. White and Messrs. Blennerhassett & Stephens should 
have the benefit of anticipated dividends on the stock of the 
mine, a large share of which was in the hands of Warren 
Hussey for his commission as procurer; in other words, it 
was a speculation on the part of Allen, Stephens & Co. and 
White, the vice-president of the Charter Oak Life Insurance 
Company, being one of the causes of the failure thereafter 
of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, as the stock 
proved to be entirely worthless and the security of Gisbom 
& Hussey was of no value whatever. On April 22, 1875, B. F. 
Allen was adjudged a bankrupt on the petition of his creditors 
filed on the 23rd of February, 1875, and Hoyt Sherman, of 
Des Moines, was appointed assignee in bankruptcy. Mr. Jeff. 
S. Polk and Mr. Bisbee, an attorney of Chicago, were em- 
ployed by the assignee in bankruptcy to defeat the suit for the 
foreclosure of the mortgage. The main ground of defense 



212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

to this mortgage was that at the time of its execution there 
was an agreement between Allen and Stephens & Blenner- 
hassett that it should be withheld from record, and that be- 
tween the time of its execution and the time that it was re- 
corded Stephens & Blennerhasset represented that Allen was 
solvent and possessed of large properties in real estate, and 
they caused him to be rated by the commercial bureaus of the 
country as worth one million dollars, and at the same time 
knew that he was in fact insolvent, and this defense was held 
to be abundantly proved by the testimony taken in the case, 
and the supreme court of the United States decided that as 
against the creditors and the assignee in bankruptcy the mort- 
gage was absolutely void. After the original petition was 
filed for the foreclosure of the mortgage I filed a supplemental 
bill making the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company the 
plaintiff and Hoyt Sherman, the assignee in bankruptcy, the 
respondent. After several months had elapsed from the time 
the suit was begun I concluded to make a personal visit to 
Blennerhassett & Stephens, of New York City, and try to 
understand the real situation and facts in the case. I spent 
some two weeks interviewing the two men who constituted 
the firm, but for some reason not known to me I never could 
obtain from them any very accurate account or reliable state- 
ment of the facts necessary to be understood to make the pro- 
per presentation of the case. Mr. Blennerhassett especially 
appeared to be a very peculiar man and his desire for con- 
cealment amounted to a controlling passion. The books of 
the firm of Allen, Stephens & Co. had locks upon their lids 
and Blennerhassett carried the key. No attempt was made 
to inform me of the detail of the transaction between them and 
the Cook County Bank, and I never became fully advised as 
to these matters except as they were developed by the tes- 
timony afterwards taken. The evidence showed that the cor- 
respondence between the house in New York and Mr. Allen 
was carried on by means of a cipher or fictitious word. Allen 
was represented as ''head," Blennerhassett as ''arm," and 



B. F. ALLEN'S BANKRUPTCY 213 

Stephens as "leg" of some imaginary person. The trans- 
mission of the mortgage itself to Chicago in a sealed package 
with sealed instructions, and the manner in which the business 
was transacted were well calculated to excite suspicion, or in 
other words give the impression that there was sometliing 
that it was necessary to conceal. That Allen was insolvent 
and had been for several years prior to his actual failure the 
testimony left no doubt, and the manner in which he conducted 
his business in connection with the house in New York was 
overwhelming proof that the parties knew that he could not 
promptly meet his pecuniary obligations. The real interested 
party in the transaction was the Charter Oak Life Insurance 
Company. Mr. White, the vice-president, proved to be under 
the influence of Blennerhassett and obtained the money of the 
company in matters of loan and discount to an extent that was 
wholly unjustifiable. 

My visit to New York, however, was a very profitable one 
to myself. The Charter Oak Life Insurance Company and 
several of the banks to whom Allen's mortgages and bills re- 
ceivable had been negotiated from time to time, including 
$100,000 of bonds of the Des Moines Gas Company, placed 
in my hands their collections, and I think that the securities 
that I brought home with me amounted to one half million 
dollars, and in the suit and foreclosure of these collaterals 
the firm of Nourse & Kauffman made very handsome profits. 
The litigation lasted a number of years and a final result was 
not obtained until the decision of the supreme court of the 
United States at the April term, 1882. The opinion is re- 
ported in United States Supreme Court Reports, Volume 105, 
page 100. After this decision was made we filed a claim of 
the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company against the bank- 
rupt estate as a general creditor. In the meantime the 
Charter Oak Life Insurance Company itself had gone into 
bankruptcy. We had some doubt as to whether our claim 
would be allowed as we had insisted on a preference that the 
court had decided was fraudulent. Mr. J. S. Polk and Mr. 



214 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

Bisbee, of Chicago, finally bought the claim of the Charter 
Oak Life Insurance Company against the bankrupt estate, and 
had no difficulty in having it allowed by Mr. Sherman, the 
assignee. These men also bought large and valuable portions 
of the real estate from Mr. Sherman, the assignee, and re- 
ceived a conveyance accordingly. The estate paid to the gen- 
eral creditors only, as we were advised, about fifteen cents on 
the dollar. Another interesting feature of the transaction 
was that Mr. Allen claimed the benefit of the homestead law of 
Iowa and claimed the fine residence on Terrace Hill with forty 
acres of land as exempt from his debts. The homestead law of 
Iowa, however, only exempted a homestead in favor of a resi- 
dent of the state. Mr. Allen had been for a number of years 
a resident of Chicago, had purchased a home there, and had 
paid out $31,000 on the purchase. We also proved that he had 
voted as a citizen of Chicago, I think at the city, county, 
and state elections, and that he had offered the property on 
Terrace Hill for sale and had caused a number of articles to 
be published in the city papers claiming the property to be 
worth $100,000. A compromise, however, was made by the 
assignee in bankruptcy by which Mr. Allen was allowed the 
buildings and a limited amount of ground, and Mr. F. M. Hub- 
bell purchased the same for $40,000. This $40,000 did him 
no good, for within a year or two he lost it in another grain 
speculation on the board of trade in Chicago. In the mean- 
time his wife, who was a daughter of Captain F. R. West, had 
become insane and imagined that her husband 's creditors were 
pursuing her because of their losses, and she died within a 
few months after losing her reason. Mr. Allen a few years 
afterwards removed to California, where he still lives at the 
time of the present writing, holding some employment from the 
United States government in connection with the business of 
preserving the timber on the public lands in that state. 



^ 



CHAPTER XIX 
About Prohibition 

In the month of November, 1889, the democratic party of 
the state of Iowa, for the first time since the election of Gov- 
ernor Grimes in 1854, succeeded in electing their candidate for 
governor; to-wit, Horace Boies. This was brought about by 
a singular combination between the railroad and the saloon 
interests of the state. I have already given some account of 
the effect upon the question of prohibition of the foolish policy 
pursued by the pretended friends of temperance in securing 
from the supreme court of the state a decision against the 
right to manufacture alcohol within the limits of the state for 
the purpose of export, and also the foolishness and wickedness 
of certain pretended friends of prohibition in instituting fraud- 
ulent prosecutions with a view to making costs and fees for 
their own personal profit. During the administration of Gov- 
ernor Larrabee the railroads of the state had become very rest- 
ive under the control exercised by the Railroad Commissioners 
of the state under the law of 1888. In the month of August, 
1888, some thirty suits were commenced in the district court of 
Polk county against the Rock Island, Northwestern, and ''Q" 
railroads for penalties incurred in failure to make their re- 
ports to the Commissioners as required by the statute. The 
railroads of Iowa had become a very potent political power. 
We had five railroads extending from the Mississippi to the 
Missouri river, and in every county of the state in which these 
roads were located the railroads had one or more active at- 
torneys to look after their interests, and under such captaincy 
as Blythe, of Burlington, and Hubbard, of Cedar Rapids, they 
exercised a very important influence over the politics of the 
state, controlling to a large extent the nomination of supreme 



216 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

judges and district judges and other state officers. The people 
of the state had become restive under the domination of this 
power. The open and shameless peddling of railroad passes to 
the members of the general assembly had begun to lose its power 
as against the rising indignation of the people. In the counties 
of Lee, Des Moines, Muscatine, Scott, and Dubuque on the 
Mississippi river, and such interior counties as Johnson and 
Crawford, with their foreign population, the saloon power of 
the state, uniting with the railroads, was sufficient to cause a 
successful revolt against the party in power. Horace Boies, 
the democratic candidate for governor, openly and shamelessly 
declared the prohibitory law to be cruel and unjust in its pro- 
visions, and his utterances in this behalf encouraged the vio- 
lators of the law to believe what they afterwards realized, 
that though the courts might assess penalties, yet an execu- 
tive who believed the penalty to be unjust could easily be 
persuaded to exercise pardoning power in their remission, 
and such was the result. For four years during the adminis- 
tration of Horace Boies the effort to enforce the prohibitory 
law was almost paralyzed. After incurring all the expense 
and trouble incident to the conviction of any one violating the 
prohibitory law, the people had the mortification of seeing the 
judgments of the courts rendered nugatory by the wrongful 
exercise of the pardoning power, vested by the constitution 
in the governor for wise and proper purposes, prostituted by 
an unscrupulous politician for his own political advancement 
and that of his party. 

Another cause of this successful revolution in the politics 
of the state arose from the absolute cowardice of the leading 
republicans of the state in not defending the legislation for 
which they were responsible. During the candidacy of Boies 
for his second term, a gentleman who was a candidate on the 
state ticket for a state office applied to me and asked my con- 
sent to publicly discuss the question of prohibition with Mr. 
Boies in case the state central committee of the party would 
arrange for such discussion. I gave my consent to such an 



ABOUT PROHIBITION 217 

arrangement, provided the committee would agree to the same, 
but he afterwards reported to me that the committee did not 
think it advisable. On the i3art of the public speakers in 
behalf of the republican cause the only discussion of the ques- 
tion of prohibition was an apology for the enactment of the 
law. They did not attempt to discuss the question of right 
or wrong, but only that the law was enacted because the 
people by their vote upon the constitutional amendment had 
signified their approval of prohibition. The result of this 
cowardice and the four years' domination of the democratic 
party had its result in the platform adopted by the republican 
state convention in the year 1893. Only the year before this 
the republican state convention had adopted a resolution prom- 
ising the people of the state that the party would take no 
backward step on the subject of prohibiting the sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage, and at this convention in 1893 
they adopted the following resolution : 

Resolved, That prohibition is not a test of republicanism. The 
general assembly has given to the state a prohibitory law as strong 
as any that has been enacted in any country. Like any other criminal 
statute, its retention, mitigation or repeal must be determined by the 
general assembly, elected by and in sympathy with the people and to 
it is relegated the subject, to take such action as they may deem best 
in the matter, maintaining the present law in those portions of the 
state where it is now or can be made efficient, and giving to other 
localities such methods of controlling and regulating the liquor traffic 
as will best serve the cause of temperance and morality. 

Under this platform, which merely meant the return of the 
open licensed saloon to Iowa in such localities in which the 
people would tolerate them, Mr. A. B. Cummins and his fol- 
lowers were all received back with open arms as prodigal sons 
and became at once important leaders politically in the repub- 
lican party. The friends of prohibition were shocked and 
alarmed at this result and at once the prominent and more 
courageous prohibitionists of the state joined in a call for an 
independent republican convention favorable to prohibition. 



218 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

At the solicitation of a number of prohibitionists in the city 
of Des Moines I prepared the following address and call for a 
state convention, which address was adopted by a public 
meeting, held in the city of Des Moines : 

When, through the machinations of men who, in their desire for 
success, have lost sight of principle, causes dear to humanity are 
about to be sacrificed, it becomes the duty of patriotic citizens to make 
an organized effort to rescue their imperiled rights. 

As republicans we assert our unqualified devotion to the doc- 
trines and principles of the republican party as heretofore set forth 
in our national platform, and as declared by republican state con- 
ventions and put in practical effect in the state of Iowa by republican 
legislators prior to the meeting of the republican state convention, 
held at Des Moines on the sixteenth inst. We declare that through 
the patriotic efforts of the republican party of Iowa prohibition had 
become the settled policy of the state, and that any attempt on the 
part of the politicians to induce the party to take a backward step 
on that question is to repudiate a past honorable record and to use- 
lessly endanger future success by a base imitation of a hitherto de- 
spised opposition. 

More than forty years ago the people of Iowa without distinction 
of party declared through the enactment of their general assembly, 
that the "people of this state would hereafter take no part in the 
profits of the retail of intoxicating liquors." This principle was 
again approved by the people of the state in the adoption of the act 
of 1855, approved by Governor Grimes, and more recently the people 
again endorsed the principle by adopting a constitutional amendment 
prohibiting the sale of intoxcating liquors for the purpose of a bev- 
erage. The people of the state of Iowa have never indicated any de- 
sire for a change of policy on this question, but on the contrary 
through the action of their representatives expressly elected upon 
this issue, they have constantly and consistently adhered to our present 
law. 

The declarations of the recent republican convention have not 
been brought about by any change of sentiment on the part of the 
republicans of the state, but in our judgment its action is the result 
of a combination of politicians who had other and ulterior purposes 
at heart, and have failed to realize that whatever may have been their 



ABOUT PROHIBITION 219 

own want of convictions upon the question, the great mass of people 
have been honest and sincere. The honest voters of the republican 
party are not "clay in the hands of the potter," to be molded into 
any fashion that may suit the professional politician. The battle that 
for the past quarter of a century they have been waging against the 
liquor power and influence, and in which they have gained so many 
signal trumphs, has not been prompted by a mere desire for office or 
place, nor have our forces been kept together by the mere "cohesive 
power of the hope of public plunder." Hence if the defeat of 
1891 could in any measure have been attributed to the position of 
the party on the question of prohibition, it would not constitute a 
valid reason for a shameful surrender and retreat. When the repub- 
lican party declared for the maintenance of the prohibitory law, and 
promised that the party would take no backward step on this question, 
the earnest and honest men of the party did not mean that the party 
would only pursue that policy so long as it would win, but they meant 
that prohibition was right and that they would maintain the right, 
and that they intended to fight it out on that line, not only that sum- 
mer, but until the saloon should make an unconditional surrender. 

We have reasons to believe and do believe that the platform of 
the convention of the sixteenth inst., on the subject of temperance, 
was brought about by the same combination of railroad and saloon 
influence that defeated our party in the election of 1891, aided by the 
timid and half-hearted defense of our platform through the weakness 
of our state central committee. 

The implied threat of the same combination to repeat their oppo- 
sition in the approaching election, induced the republican state cen- 
tral committee to unite in accomplishing this surrender. It is said 
and often repeated that there is no hope for the cause of prohibition 
except through the success of the republican party. This was un- 
doubtedly true so long as the state platform pledged the party to 
maintain and enforce the law. 

The platform adopted on the sixteenth inst. not only does not 
promise to maintain prohibition as a state policy, but expressly de- 
clares in favor of "something else" in those localities where the pro- 
hibitory law was not enforced. This "something else" in the pre- 
tended "interest of true temperance" can deceive no man who does 
not desire to be deceived. It is a base imitation of democratic state 
platforms, and intends merely the "Schmidt bill" or the "Gatch 



220 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

bill" or some other equally objectionable attempt to abandon prohi- 
bition as a principle and as a state policy. 

We believe in the sovereignty of the state of Iowa, and in its un- 
divided sovereignty over every foot of territory within its boundaries. 
We do not believe the general assembly should attempt to exercise the 
power to make an act criminal in one part of the state and license 
the same act in another part of the state. The constitution of our 
state requires that all laws enacted by the general assembly "shall 
have a uniform operation." If the state shall concede that the sale 
of intoxicating liquors may be licensed in one part of the state and 
saloons may be lawfully established in one city or county, with what 
consistency can the state punish such acts as criminal when done in 
another locality within her jurisdiction. The establishment of a saloon 
for the propagation of drunkeness is either innocent or a criminal act. 
We recognize no middle ground. We do not believe in compromising 
with criminals or commuting offenses committed against the best in- 
terests of humanity. Neither do we believe the republican party of 
Iowa can ever survive an act so inconsistent with principle and her 
former professions, as would be the repeal of our present prohibitory 
law or the enactment of a license system for any part of the state. 

We do not propose or recommend opposition to the election of any 
candidate for the general assembly on the republican ticket who is in 
favor of maintaining and enforcing our present law. The election 
of such is consistent with our past history and policy and will secure 
a republican United States senator. If, however, any candidate for 
the general assembly on the republican ticket shall declare for a saloon 
as against what has heretofore been recognized as republicanism, the 
responsibility of his defeat, with all its political consequences, will be 
upon him, and not upon those who are true to their convictions and 
principles and the past policy of the party. 

We, therefore, the republicans of Polk county in mass convention 
assembled, at the instance and with the cooperation of the republi- 
cans of Sac and other counties of the state, who protest and dissent 
from the action of the state convention of the sixteenth inst., with the 
view of an organized effort that may save our party from committing 
the great wrong and outrage attempted, do hereby invite all citizens 
who agree with us in sentiment and purpose to meet in delegate con- 
vention in Calvary Tabernacle at Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday the 



ABOUT PROHIBITION 221 

fifth day of September, A, D, 1893, at 10 A. M., to take such steps 
and devise such measures as 

First. Will secure the election to the general assembly at the 
November election of such candidates only as will maintain the present 
prohibitory law. 

Second. As will secure such action and such an expression of the 
will and wishes of the people of the state as will convince the repub- 
lican managers that the path of honor is the only path of safety. 

The call for this convention alarmed the leaders of the 
republican party in the state, and they were very active in 
their efforts to counteract its effect. The convention was held 
according to the call on the 5th of September, 1893, and we had 
a very large representation and a very enthusiastic conven- 
tion. We adopted a platform embracing the principles indi- 
cated in the call for the convention and nominated a state 
ticket. Our candidate for Governor, Mr. L. S. Coffin, was not 
present in the convention, but Doctor Fellows, a prominent pro- 
hibitionist of the state, vouched for his entire sympathy with 
the movement and his acceptance of the nomination. Mrs. J. 
Ellen Foster, who had been president of the national W. C. 
T. U., was sent by politicians from Washington, D. C, and was 
present at the convention, for the purpose, if possible, of alien- 
ating such as she could influence from taking part in or endors- 
ing the movement. She seated herself in the gallery over 
against the chair occupied by the president and scowled and 
looked vengeance at those who took an active part in its pro- 
ceedings. When I read the call for the convention before set 
out she looked for all the world like Tam 0' Shanter's wife 
when waiting for Tarn's return, ''Knitting her brows like 
a gathering storm and nursing her wrath to keep it warm." 
During the recess of the convention she was very busy button- 
holing first one and then another of the prominent prohibi- 
tionists in attendance, taking them to a private parlor in the 
hotel and laboring with them to convince them that the suc- 
cess of the republican party was more important than the 
question of prohibition. After our nomination of Coffin as 



222 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

our candidate for Governor, Mr. Lafe Young, editor of the 
Capital, made a visit to Mr. Coffin at his home at Fort Dodge. 
Mr. Coffin had prepared his letter of acceptance of our nom- 
ination, but Young induced him to cut it in two and change 
the latter half of it so that it would read a declination of the 
nomination, and by some means unknown to the public in- 
duced Mr. Coffin to take the stump and make a number of 
speeches on the tariff question during the political canvass 
that year. By some means unknown also to me, the leading 
railroad lawyers of the state who had supported Boies were 
induced to return to their allegiance to the republican party, 
and the party succeeded in electing Jackson their candidate 
for governor, and also electing a legislature in sympathy with 
their saloon platform. The general assembly that met in 
January, 1894, accordingly passed the act known as the mulct 
law, being chapter 62 of the laws of the 25th general assembly 
of the state. This act does not in terms attempt to repeal the 
prohibitory law then in force in the state. On the contrary, 
section 16 of the act expressly provides: ''Nothing in this 
act contained, shall be in any way construed to mean that the 
business of the sale of intoxicating liquors is in any way legal- 
ized, nor is the same to be construed in any manner or form 
as a license, nor shall the assessment or payment of any tax 
for the sale of liquors as aforesaid, protect the wrongdoer 
from any penalty now provided by law, except that on con- 
ditions hereinafter provided certain penalties may be sus- 
pended." 

The next section of the act provides for the circulation of 
a petition, and by obtaining a certain majority or percentage 
of the voters to sign a petition to that effect the penalties pro- 
vided in the prohibitoiy liquor law shall not be enforced 
against the offender. Under this law the brewers of St. Louis 
and Milwaukee employed men to circulate petitions, paying 
them five dollars a day for their services in obtaining sig- 
natures to petitions in certain counties of the state, under 
which the parties who paid the required tax were secured 



ABOUT PROHIBITION 223 

against any prosecutions for violations of the law. I tried 
several cases in the district and supreme court of the state for 
the purpose of testing the constitutionality of this act of the leg- 
islature. It placed the pardoning power theretofore exercised 
by the Grovemor of the state in the hands of the brewers of 
Milwaukee and St. Louis and their employees, provided they 
could by such means as they might adopt, obtain the required 
number of signatures to such petitions. It clearly recognized 
that what was a crime under the law in one part of the state, 
might be committed provided the necessary amount was furn- 
ished and paid into the public treasury as a commutation for 
the offense, and that payment should be made in advance with- 
out reference to the number of offenses that might be com- 
mitted. It was clearly not a law of uniform operations under 
the decisions of our supreme court as theretofore held, for it 
was a crime in one city or county in the state and not a crime 
in another city or county of the state; notwithstanding the 
law making it a crime was still left in full force and effect, ex- 
cept as it was abrogated in a particular locality by the signing 
of certain petitions. Strange to say the supreme court of 
Iowa, notwithstanding their former decisions to which I have 
heretofore referred, sustained this law and its constitution- 
ality, and under it in all of the counties of the state where we 
had any considerable foreign population the legalized saloon 
has returned to do its deadly work and the only compensation 
for it is that men who call themselves republicans have been 
able to hold and enjoy the honors of public office. After the de- 
cision of our supreme court upon the question of the constitu- 
tionality of this act I received from the editors of a law publi- 
cation east a communication requesting my views and opinions 
for publication in their law magazine, and I simply wrote upon 
the letter addressed to me the statement that the decision 
made by our supreme court under this law was a political 
necessity and that it was an old and true adage that necessity 
knew no law, and I had no further comments to make upon it. 
Since the prominent part that I took in this canvass of 



224 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

1893 my standing with the republican party has been rather 
impaired ; nevertheless, subsequently in the campaigns of Mr. 
Wm. Jennings Bryan involving the national policy of the re- 
publican party, I have taken very active part. The free 
coinage of silver heresy of Mr. Bryan I regarded as a serious 
menace to the integrity and honor of the nation, and I spent 
very considerable time and my own private means in making 
public speeches condemning that wild and visionary scheme. 
In state politics I have taken no active part since 1894. I 
never belonged to or cooperated with what has been known as 
the ''Third party" or the prohibition party as a national 
organization. When the prohibitionists of Iowa united with 
the national organization I strongly advised agamst it. I 
could not see any hope of accomplishing anything by such an 
organization. The states of Kansas, Iowa, and the Dakotas 
had become prohibition, and in my judgment the only effectual 
way of reaching the question of prohibiting the sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage, or the establishment of places of 
resort for such sale, was by the exercise of the police power 
of the states in the management of their own domestic affairs. 
The congress of the United States had no control over the sub- 
ject, except in the matter of revenue laws or the taxing of the 
manufacture or sale of liquors. Our courts and the supreme 
court of the United States had agreed that the payment of 
taxes under these revenue laws and the issuing of what has 
been called a license, was really no protection as against the 
state law and its penalties. The general government does not 
exercise police power within the state but it may enforce 
penalties for the violation of revenue laws or enact laws regu- 
lating commerce within the states, but it cannot prohibit the 
establishment of the saloon or the maintenance of such a 
place merely upon the ground of preserving public order and 
morality. I could not and never have been able, therefore, to 
see the propriety of a national organization based upon the 
idea of prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors as a bev- 
erage, or establishing places of resort for such sale. 



ABOUT PROHIBITION 225 

Another objection to this third party, the national prohi- 
bition party, so-called, has been the adoption of a platform 
favoring universal suffrage without reference to sex. This 
also is a question over which the congress of the United States 
have not heretofore exercised any jurisdiction. The question 
of suffrage or the right to vote has been a matter peculiarly 
within the control of each state of the Union and its local con- 
stitution and laws, and is not and never has been a matter of 
national politics. I have always believed and still believe that 
if the prohibitionists had confined their efforts to the several 
states, capturing those in which they had some prospect of suc- 
cess, their cause would have grown and become stronger each 
year. The great centers of population such as New York City, 
Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and such other cities filled as 
they are with foreign population, who have no sympathy with 
the manners and customs pertaining to these agricultural 
states, cannot in my judgment be brought under the control of 
prohibition at any time during the present or next generation 
of men, and I regard it as foolish to spend our time and our 
money in such quixotic efforts. My hope in inaugurating the 
movement that we made in 1893 was simply to teach the repub- 
licans of Iowa the lesson that success politically was not to be 
attained in this state by subservience to the saloon power, and 
that defeat in the election of that year might result in a return 
of the party to its better and higher purposes in maintaining 
that which was right and just and humane. That we were de- 
feated in that effort at that time was most unfortunate, but the 
domination of the political power of the saloon, I still have 
faith to believe, will work its own destruction, and that the 
people of this state will return to their former convictions. 



CHAPTER XX 

Personal Incidents 

In the spring of the year 1888 I sold my home, 707 Fourth 
street, and built a house for my residence on my farm. We 
left the old home with no little regret. It had been our place 
of residence since the fall of 1859, with the exception of two 
years in which we fitted up the property temporarily on the 
comer of Fifth and Center, while we built the new house on 
Fourth in the old location. We had planted the shade trees 
of hard and soft maple. Here our child had been bom and 
had grown to manhood, here we had celebrated our silver wed- 
ding in 1878, and had enjoyed the society of many kind friends 
and persons of distinction and influence in the state. Bishop 
Andrews, the bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, with 
his family, resided nearly opposite to our house, and Bishop 
Hearst and his family had lived on Third street nearby, and 
our excellent neighbors, A. Y. Rawson and his first wife, 
Thos. F. Withrow and his family, had been our kind friends 
through many years. Here we had entertained such men as 
Governor Grimes and Governor Kirkwood and his wife. Sena- 
tor Harlan and his wife. Bishop Waldron, Bishop Simpson, 
and other distinguished men of the state and of the church. 

The most diflScult problem in my life that I had to solve 
was the care and education of my son. I felt that everything 
was at stake in his proper discipline and education. During 
his early childhood we sent him to school as already mentioned 
to Mrs. Winkley, afterwards for some years to the public 
school and still later to Callanan College, an institution taught 
by Dr. Pomeroy. When the time came for him to go from 
home and attend college my first thought was to send him to 
Iowa City to the State University, but I had grave fears in 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS 227 

regard to the influence that prevailed in that city. The col- 
lege campus was environed by saloons and public sentiment of 
that town was far from being what it ought to have been. 
Attorneys had been mobbed in the streets of the city for the 
offense of prosecuting the violators of the prohibitory law, and 
there had been no proper expression of public sentiment con- 
demning the outrage. I consulted with a number of the best 
citizens of Iowa City in regard to the matter of sending my 
son there for his education, but I became satisfied that they 
knew but very little of what was transpiring in the city after 
bedtime. I thought it prudent to make an investigation on my 
own account. I accordingly took the train that left Des 
Moines at five o 'clock in the afternoon, arriving at Iowa City 
about half past nine. I went to the St. James Hotel and 
quietly registered my name and engaged a room for the night, 
but did not go to bed. I waited until about half past ten or 
eleven o 'clock, and took my hat and started out on a tour of 
inspection. I visited a number of the saloons on the public 
square and found them filled with young men, no doubt 
students of the college, and I met several crowds of these young 
gentlemen on tlie street headed by one of the trustees of the 
college in not a very sober condition. I returned to my hotel 
with my mind fully made up that my boy should go without an 
education before I would subject him to the risk of being edu- 
cated in such a town. Subsequently I visited Ames in com- 
pany with my wife and selected a proper room in the dormi- 
toiy for my son's occupancy, and we sent him to Ames accord- 
ingly. He afterwards spent a year in California before set- 
tling down to business as an architect in Des Moines. 

He was anxious to design a country farm house that 
should be a credit to his own skill and ability. Our new 
house was completed in the latter part of July of that year. 
We found it somewhat inconvenient to be so far away from 
our church privileges and from business, but took great 
pleasure in improving our grounds and setting out fruit and 
ornamental trees for our new home. I had the old road 



228 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

changed so as to run east of the house. My wife soon became 
very much attached to the new home and here we had many 
pleasant reunions with our old friends and neighbors. 

In 1886 I rented the farm, including the land in section 20 
bought of Sneer, to Mr. Charles West for the term of three 
years, he carrying on a dairy farm on the place, reserving 
from his lease the right to occupy the orchard as well as my 
own residence, and also the right of pasture for a team of 
horses and a couple of cows. The next year, 1889, my son 
contracted marriage with Miss Elizabeth Baehring, and here 
were bom my two grandchildren, Clinton Baehring Nourse 
on April 14, 1890, and Lawrence Baehring Nourse on October 
5, 1893. My son and his wife and first child made a trip to 
Europe in the year 1892. In 1895 my son purchased a prop- 
erty on Fifth street and removed to the city and occupied the 
same until the fall of the year, when the children were both 
taken down with diphtheria. He put them both at once in a 
carriage and brought them out to our country home, where 
the oldest of the two children died September 10th. This 
was the first death we had in the family, and I purchased a 
lot in Woodland Cemetery where the little one was laid away. 

The following year my health became somewhat impaired 
and I had a serious attack of what they called la grippe. I 
was somewhat overworked at that time, and under the advice 
of my physician I went with my wife to the state of Florida 
and spent the winter in St. Petersburg in that state, returning 
early in the spring and resuming my practice. For several 
successive years since then I have spent my winters in St. 
Petersburg, Florida. 

In the year 1902 my son's health became seriously im- 
paired, and early that fall with his wife and child he visited 
California, and in December of that year my wife and myself 
joined them. My son suffered from severe nervous condition 
that made it impossible for him to sleep only a few hours out of 
each twenty-four. He was reduced in flesh to about 117 pounds 
weight and I became seriously concerned for his future. Find- 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS 229 

ing outdoor travel to agree with him better than treatment of 
the doctors, we finally in the month of April, 1903, determined 
upon a camping expedition and a visit to the Yosemite valley. 
"We fitted out two teams with camp wagons and tent, and 
started from Long Beach about the 26th of April, traveling 
about twenty miles a day, going first via the coast to Santa 
Barbara and thence via Merced over to the Yosemite valley. 
At Santa Barbara my wife concluded she would not go any 
further with us on the trip. Our roads over mountains were 
very narrow, the outer wheel of the wagon only three or four 
feet from the precipice, and she suffered nervous apprehen- 
sion that deprived her of any real enjoyment of the trip. 
I secured the services of a young man to accompany us on the 
further trip and to aid in the work incident to camp life. My 
son's wife had suffered from a spell of nervous indigestion 
and was scarcely able to do the cooking for her husband and 
child. I became the cook for myself and my assistant and 
acquired considerable skill in making coffee and flapjacks and 
frying breakfast bacon. The scenery upon this trip and in 
the valley of the Yosemite has been described by many writers 
more skilled than myself in putting their impressions upon 
paper. I can only say that we all enjoyed the trip exceedingly 
and were strongly impressed with these wonderful mountains 
and valleys and great trees that have acquired a world-wide 
reputation. My wife and myself returned to Iowa and to our 
home early in July, 1903. 

During the second year of the tenancy of Mr. Chas. West 
I had the misfortune of losing all of my barns and outbuild- 
ings by fire. The loss amounted to about $3,500 and I only 
had $500 insurance on one of the bams. I immediately re- 
built the barns and granary and corn cribs, taking the pre- 
caution also to build a separate barn for my own use. A few 
months after my return from California in that year I dis- 
covered that one of my eyes had failed, supposed to be caused 
by a callous condition of the optic nerve. Soon after the 
other eye became affected in the same way, and later in the 



230 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

fall I was unable to read. I first applied to and received 
treatment from Dr. Pearson ; afterwards I visited Chicago and 
took treatment of an oculist of some reputation there. The 
following winter I took treatment from Dr. Amos of Des 
Moines, and spent two weeks in the Methodist Hospital with- 
out receiving any relief or seeming benefit. These physicians 
were all candid enough to confess their inability to do me any 
good, and since that time I have been partially deprived of the 
use of my sight, and have not been able to read or write. My 
physicians promised me several years ago that I should lose 
my sight entirely, but in this I am happy to say they were 
wrong. I can still see imperfectly to get about and avoid 
collision with objects, but I am not able to recognize the 
features of friends and acquaintances. 

I have continued every year to visit St. Petersburg during 
the winter season, and have made miany pleasant and interest- 
ing acquaintances among the tourists who visit annually that 
place. 

On the first day of November, 1906, my beautiful home was 
totally destroyed by fire. We lost all our furniture and cloth- 
ing, except my private library and furnishings on the first 
floor of the house, which we succeeded in rescuing from the 
flames. The previous winter my wife had accompanied me to 
Florida and remained with me there during the season. After 
our house was destroyed we removed to the city and occupied 
apartments with my son and his wife in a block of flats then 
belonging to my son on Fifth street. The following winter, 
1906-07, 1 spent in St. Petersburg, returning home in April of 
that year. I had been home only a few days before we made 
the sad discovery that my wife's health was fast failing. At 
her earnest solicitation, however, we rebuilt our house on the 
farm and in August of that year reestablished ourselves in the 
location of our old home. 

And now comes the saddest event of my life. On the 11th 
day of November, succeeding, my wife passed away. The 
previous 21st of March was her eightieth birthday. A short 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS 231 

time before that date while at St. Petersburg, Florida, I re- 
ceived from my daughter Elizabeth a letter stating that she 
intended to have some friends spend an evening with my wife 
to have a birthday celebration, and requesting me to write 
some verses and also to send a new silk dress pattern to be 
presented to my wife on the occasion. I had a premonition 
that the sad event that later transpired in the fall was not far 
off. I wrote as cheerfully as I could under the circumstances 
and sent my daughter a check with which to purchase the silk 
dress pattern, and the following verses I composed as well as 
I could with my defective sight. They were read on the occa- 
sion, and those present assure me that my wife was cheerful 
and enjoyed their visit very much: 
My Dear Wife :— 

Elizabeth, our daughter, writes to me 
That she intends to have some friends to tea; 
She says she can't invite them all. 
Because our house is much too small, 
But she selected just a few. 
The ones she thinks are dearest most to you. 
She intends to celebrate, for mother dear, 
The birthday of her eightieth year. 
And she requests that I shall write to thee, 
What she is pleased to call some poetry, 
And that because I can't be there 
She '11 read it from my vacant chair. 
She also writes, that while your health is good. 
That very lately she has understood 
That you are suffering some distress, 
And I must buy for you a new silk dress. 
And send it there together with the poetry. 
That she could have them both in time for tea. 

The journey has been very long my dear, 

And you have safely reached your eightieth year, 

But you will never seem so old to me, 

I still recall your face just as it used to be. 

Your brow is smooth, your eyes are bright, 



232 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OP CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

You still retain your appetite. 

This human life doth now as ever 

Depend so much upon the liver. 

Some sixty years ago, I knew 

A fair young girl, she looked like you. 

We fell in love, a youthful dream, 

But even now, this world would seem 

A barren waste, if I could doubt 

The love I could not live without. 

'Tis more than fifty years since we were wed, 

How rapidly the time has fled. 

The way has not been always smooth, 

I only cite the fact to prove 

Our love was true. That is to say 

We found some shadows o'er our way. 

But they were shadows only, and did not bother. 

For reaching out our hands to touch each other 

We kept the path until the light 

Shone out again and all was right. 

We've had our joy, our grief and sorrow. 

Differed today, agreed tomorrow, 

Forgave each other and repented. 

Firm one day, the next relented. 

But after all the truth to tell 

I think we've averaged very well. 

'Tis almost four and fifty years 

Since you, with many sighs and tears, 

Bade farewell to home and friends, 

Not knowing what your life might be. 

With only faith in God and love for me. 

I'm thinking of the time gone by. 

When from your home, both you and I 

Came west to seek and make a home 

That we might claim and call our own. 

Without our kindred, friends or wealth, 

We started forth with youth and health. 

Whate'er we have, whate'er we've gained 

We know we've honestly obtained. 

And we grew strong in faith and hope. 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS 233 

And never thought of giving up. 

To our store we added day by day, 

And faithful friends have joined us on our way. 

No woman ever bore a sou 

More true and faithful than our one, 

And when he grew to man 's estate 

And sought and found a worthy mate, 

We got our daughter ready grown 

And took and loved her for our own. 

But there 's another blessing yet 

And one we never can forget: 

Our dearest Laurence — 

The only grandchild we have left. 

Since of the other one bereft; 

But there is also present here 

A cherub from another sphere. 

He comes to us from realms above. 

Drawn hither by the power of love. 

We can but feel his presence here 

To honor Grandma 's eightieth year. 

I do not know how many more 

Of birthdays you may have in store. 

It is not within our ken to know, 

Just how much further you may have to go 

Before you reach the end. 

But whether near or far, 

We all will meet you at the ' ' Gates Ajar. ' ' 

In my younger days I had been accustomed somewhat oc- 
casionally to indulge myself in the attempt of writing what 
out of courtesy to my literary qualifications might be called 
poetry, though my life was too busy a life to indulge much in 
sentiment or even to indulge much in imagination. Some 
time the year before I wrote this for my wife's birthday, I 
composed and wrote the following for the benefit of the Early 
Settler's Association of Polk county, which was sung with 
considerable enthusiasm at several of their picnic celebra- 
tions. The song is sung to the tune of "John Brown's body 
lies a mouldering in the grave," and is as follows: 



234 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES CLINTON NOURSE 

The early settlers' picnic has come around again, 
And here we are together the few that still remain, 
To exchange our hearty greetings and to join in this refrain, 
As we go marching on. 

Chorus — Glory, glory, hallelujah, 
Glory, glory, hallelujah, 
Glory, glory, hallelujah. 
We still are marching on. 

'Tis many years ago since we all came out west 
To grow up with the country that is now the very best. 
God gave the soil and climate and the settlers did the rest 
When they came marching on. 

Chorus — 



We left our homes in yonder for the far off Iowa. 
We came and saw her beauty and settled down to stay, 
And there's not a soul among us that has ever rued the day 
When we came marching on. 

Chorus — 

This is the land of promise where the milk and honey flow. 
With corn and pumpkin plenty, and where pies and puddings grow, 
With every other blessing that nature can bestow 
As we go marching on. 

Chorus — 

We may seem a little older for our heads are silvered o'er, 
But our hearts are still as young as they were in days of yore, 
And we still recount the blessings the future has in store 
As we go marching on. 



Chorus — 



Dr 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS 235 

This is a goodly land where we have lived and loved together ; 
We have borne the heat of Summer and faced the coldest weather. 
Glory, hallelujah ! our Iowa forever ! 
We still are marching on. 

Chorus — 

Our nation is united as it never was before, 
All are happy and contented with old glory floating o'er. 
We are coming Father Abraham with many millions more, 
We all are marching on. 

Chorus — 

Our column is unbroken though some have gone before, 
They have passed across the river and have reached the shining shore. 
And are waiting there to greet us as they did in days of yore 
When we were marching on. 

Chorus — 







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